EDITORIAL Balloon cryoablation for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation

This editorial refers to ‘One year follow-up after cryo-balloon isolation of the pulmonary veins in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation ’ by Y. Van Belle et al., on page 1271 Catheter ablation has traditionally been performed for atrial fibrillation using a point-by-point ablation approach using radiofrequency energy. There are several inherent limit-ations of this approach. The efficacy of point-by-point radio-frequency ablation is limited by the rapid formation of oedema, which may potentially reduce lesion penetration, the relatively high incidence of conduction recovery and the inherent inaccuracies of trying to create curvilinear lesions using a technique that was originally developed and used for discrete point ablation. There are also inherent risks using radiofrequency energy in the relatively thin