Abbott announces first procedures using its Volt Pulsed Field Ablation

Abbott announced the first global procedures have been conducted using the company’s new Volt Pulsed Field Ablation, or PFA, System to treat patients battling common abnormal heart rhythms such as atrial fibrillation, or AFib. Over 30 patients were recently treated in Australia as part of Abbott’s Volt CE Mark study, a pre-market, multi-center clinical study designed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of Abbott’s Volt PFA System. In addition to upcoming procedures in markets across Asia Pacific and Europe, Abbott anticipates approval for its U.S. clinical trial, or IDE, for the Volt PFA System in the first half of this year. Historically, patients requiring a cardiac ablation procedure to treat conditions like AFib received radiofrequency, or RF, ablation, which uses heat to destroy tissue responsible for erratic heart signals, or cryogenic ablation, which freezes tissue. Instead of heat or extreme cold, PFA uses high energy electrical pulses to destroy the cells causing abnormal heart rhythms, which can reduce the risk of damaging adjacent tissue in patients with complex disease or anatomy. First-generation PFA systems have required multiple ablations with the catheter positioned in various locations to effectively treat targeted tissue.