Blackrock Clinic becomes the first hospital in Ireland to use Adagio’s iCLAS ablation system to treat patients with atrial fibrillation

25th Mar 2022

Last month, Blackrock Clinic became the first hospital in Ireland to use Adagio’s iCLAS ultra-cold curvilinear catheter ablation system to treat patients with atrial fibrillation.

Atrial fibrillation, or AF, is an irregular and often rapid heart rhythm. It is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia with a growing prevalence.

Conventional catheter ablation of AF is achieved using thermal or cryothermal energy.  Cryo-balloons have been used for this purpose for many years, but iCLAS is able to reach much lower temperatures by using nitrogen near its liquid-vapour critical point as a freezing source delivered through a curvilinear ablation element.

Professor David Keane, director of the cardiac electrophysiology (EP) service at Blackrock Clinic, said the advantages of the iCLAS include the efficiency of its ultra-cold ablation system, the flexibility of the curvilinear element to adopt to the patient’s atrial anatomy, as well as the incorporation of a warming balloon to protect the oesophagus.

As our CEO James O’Donoghue pointed out, this development demonstrates Blackrock’s ongoing commitment to making industry-leading technology available to Irish patients at the earliest opportunity:

“With all the indicators suggesting that the number of people who develop AF will increase significantly in coming years, Irish patients need to know that the best possible care is available to them. Once again, Blackrock Clinic is proud to be the first Irish hospital to make this available and our talented and dedicated staff will continue to provide world-class cardiology care and treatment long into the future.”

This novel technology comes at an exciting time for our EP team, with the further development of new technology such as pulse field ablation also due to start in Blackrock Clinic this year. To support these developments, we are currently building a third dedicated EP cath lab which will be in operation by November of this year.