Dorset Heart Clinic becomes only private centre in Dorset, and one of only a very few private centres in the UK, licensed to perform an ablation technique known as Pulse Field Ablation or PFA.

Thanks to a pioneering agreement with Boston Scientific, the cardiac arrhythmia team at Dorset Heart Clinic is now able to providing private patients a revolutionary new technology, called Farapulse PFA, for atrial fibrillation procedures, improving safety and cutting operation times for patients by half.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common heart rhythm abnormality seen in the UK affecting over one million people. It can be an extremely disabling condition, commonly causing symptoms such as shortness of breath, tiredness, palpitations and a significant reduction in exercise tolerance.

Previously, cardiologists have treated AF through targeting and abolishing the electrical signals in the heart responsible for triggering the arrhythmia, by burning or freezing them away. The procedure carries a small risk of causing damage to surrounding areas, such as the oesophagus, or important veins leading from the lungs to the heart. With this new Farapulse PFA technology, non-thermal energy is used to target the same signals, in a tissue specific manner, minimising any collateral damage to the surrounding tissue. The procedure now takes around an hour, reducing by half the time it would previously have taken.

Discover how Farapulse PFA works on the short video here: https://youtu.be/9vcLE0wfINo

The procedure is carried out by all of our five consultants in cardiac electrophysiology at Dorset Heart Clinic. 

Pictured from left to right: Dr Claridge, Dr Bala, Dr Babu, Dr Sopher and Dr Boullin.