August 24, 2011 — CardioFocus Inc., developer of the HeartLight endoscopic ablation system (EAS) for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF), announced the system is now available in the United Kingdom. The first AF patients were treated at The Heart Hospital in London on Wednesday, August 17, with additional cases to take place throughout the month.
The procedures were performed by Edward Rowland, M.D., and Oliver Segal, M.D., consultant cardiologists at The Heart Hospital, and proctored by Boris Schmidt, M.D., of Cardioangiologisches Centrum Bethanien, Frankfurt, Germany, an international expert on the HeartLight EAS technology.
The Heart Hospital is part of the University College London Hospitals Foundation Trust. The hospital anticipates the system could be used in up to half of the nearly 400 AF ablation procedures performed at the hospital every year.
HeartLight EAS is a unique catheter ablation technology incorporating an illuminating endoscope to provide physicians with direct visualization within a beating heart, in real time and without radiation. It also features a compliant, dynamically adjustable balloon catheter for improved contact with the pulmonary vein (PV) ostium, utilizing laser energy for more efficient, precise ablation.
Recent data demonstrates approximately 86 percent of PVs remained persistently isolated after three months following a single procedure with HeartLight EAS; 65 percent of patients achieved durable freedom from AF.
The technology is available at sites across Europe including Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic. It will soon be the subject of a clinical trial in the United States.
For more information: www.cardiofocus.com
January 22, 2026 
