Cleveland Clinic London Is First UK Hospital to Introduce an Innovative Technology for Atrial Fibrillation Treatment

Cleveland Clinic London has become the first hospital in the UK to introduce a novel technology to treat patients with atrial fibrillation, an abnormal heart rhythm.

This new treatment approach delivers pulsed-field ablation (PFA) using an innovative ‘balloon-in-basket’ technology. PFA is a minimally invasive technique to treat atrial fibrillation and is an alternative to traditional thermal ablation methods.

During a traditional ablation procedure, a catheter is guided to the interior of the heart. Extreme temperatures (heat or cold) are used to destroy areas associated with abnormal heart rhythms. PFA relies on tissue-selective, non-thermal electric fields to remove heart tissue while avoiding injury to surrounding structures.

The new PFA technology allows for efficient energy delivery to the targeted tissue, potentially improving procedural efficiency. It has shown promising results in clinical studies, particularly in terms of safety and effectiveness.

Initial results indicate high effectiveness with a low incidence of adverse events and significant improvements in quality of life for patients. In a clinical study, there was a reported 88.2% decrease from arrhythmia in paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and 76.7% decrease in persistent atrial fibrillation at six months.¹

Atrial fibrillation affects 1.4 million people in the UK, according to the NHS. Cleveland Clinic London is one of the few private hospitals in the UK to provide the full suite of treatments for atrial fibrillation and has been using PFA for atrial fibrillation for several years.

Currently, this new technology is only available at Cleveland Clinic London. It adds to the hospital’s existing treatments for atrial fibrillation and gives patients and their providers more choices for treatment

This treatment is recommended for patients who have symptomatic atrial fibrillation that has not responded well to medication; are seeking a minimally invasive treatment option with potentially fewer complications; and are looking for a procedure that offers short recovery times and high success rates.

“This innovative PFA technology is an important addition to our available treatment options for patients with atrial fibrillation,” said Professor Aldo Rinaldi, consultant cardiologist at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals and service lead for Electrophysiology at Cleveland Clinic London. “The technology has demonstrated impressive results for patients with atrial fibrillation and has the potential to avoid damage associated with traditional thermal energy techniques to important structures outside of the heart.

1. Tilz R et al. Safety and effectiveness of the first balloon in basket pulsed field ablation system for the treatment of atrial fibrillation. Europace 2025. https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euaf072