Catheter Ablation: The Current Status and the Future Direction

  It was back in 1981 when the first direct current catheter atrio-ventricular node ablation procedure was done, and it has been more than 30 years since the first radio-frequency accessory pathway ablation was performed.
  There has been a tremendous progress about catheter ablation of various types of tachy-arrhythmias. Firstly, catheter ablation were focused for the treatment of atrioventricular reentry tachycardia and atrioventricular nodal reentry tachycardia.
  In the last decade of the 20^th century, the catheter designing, the radiofrequency energy settings, and the catheter cooling methods provided the dramatic progress to improve the success rate and to reduce the complication rate of the catheter ablation procedures.
  Since then, several catheter based ablation approaches are confirmed for the treatment of various tachy-arrhythmias, such as supraventricular tachycardia, typical atrial flutter, ventricular premature contraction, and others.
  After the 21^st century, the focus of the interest was shifted to more complex cardiac arrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation, sustained ventricular tachycardia, and even more, ventricular fibrillation.
  Now in 2015, we already had balloon based ablation of the pulmonary veins including cryo-, laser-, and hot-balloon. Bland new invasive/noninvasive mapping methodologies of complex cardiac arrhythmias have also in the clinical field. Moreover, substrate identification guided by CMR imaging may facilitate the underlying mechanisms of those complex arrhythmias.
  In this plenary session, we will expect to have the most advanced concept, methodology, and technology for the better understanding the mechanisms and the innovative ablation techniques of those complex arrhythmias.
  Moreover, we will be more excited to discuss about the future directions of the concept, methodology, and technology for the breakthrough of the catheter ablation.
  Your contribution for the future improvement of catheter ablation of complex arrhythmias are most welcome.