Cardiac ablation is a well-accepted treatment option for cardiac arrhythmias, performed more than 800,000 times every year globally. Currently, electrophysiologists rely on a range of indirect surrogate end points, such as temperature, power, duration and contact force, to assess lesion quality during the cardiac ablation procedure. However, these surrogate end points have been shown to be variable and potentially unreliable, and they do not directly assess tissue response in real time. Literature has shown single procedure recurrence rates of 20 to 40 percent when ablating atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common form of arrhythmia.

The LuxCath OmniView light-guided catheter delivers and couples light into the tissue via an optical fiber embedded in the ablation catheter to assess tissue metabolic activity. The optical signal can be used to assess stability of catheter-tissue contact, tissue composition and lesion formation. The quality of these lesions is critical, as arrhythmia will recur if the lesions are not complete and uniform across the affected tissue. As lesions are formed, natural tissue fluorescence diminishes, indicating tissue destruction. This feedback mechanism allows the electrophysiologist to better assess the quality of the lesion formed. The next generation of the OmniView is orientation-independent, emitting light and seeing in all directions, allowing for optical signals at all angles of tissue contact.