Present concepts in management of atrial fibrillation: From drug therapy to ablation

Figure 1 Various approaches to cure atrial fibrillation. A-C: most procedures used for ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF) include one or a combination of the techniques. A: Isolation of the pulmonary veins (PVs) with or without demonstration of PV-left atrial conduction block; B: PVI with additional left atrial linear ablations (mitral isthmus and roof); C: Ablation of the complex fractionated atrial electrograms (CFAE). The shaded areas indicate CFAE. D: Illustration of atrial lesions in the modified Cox/MAZE III procedure. Violet tags indicate the anatomic location of the lesions. IVC: Inferior vena cava; LAA: Left atrial appendage; LI: Left inferior pulmonary vein; LS: Left superior pulmonary vein; PVI: Pulmonary vein isolation; RI: Right inferior pulmonary vein; RS: Right superior pulmonary vein; SVC: Superior vena cava; RAA: Right atrial appendage.