Cool new(er) technology might speed the time it takes to perform catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation: the high frequency ultrasound balloon. It has a fluid-filled inner chamber and an outer carbon dioxide-filled balloon that helps focus the ultrasound in a ring-like pattern in an attempt to ablate (or burn) around the pulmonary veins in the left atrium (the site where it's thought the atrial fibrillation comes from). Average lesion time takes 40-90 seconds and it covers LOTS of territory in the left atrium. It's just starting clinical trials.... Seems promising. We'll see....
--Wes
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