Christine Webb, Your Health & Fitness

For the first time, Florida Hospital doctors can see directly into the heart and treat areas that are short-circuiting with more precision.

Royice Rasnake, 60, suffered from atrial fibrillation -- irregular heartbeats, dizziness and fatigue for nearly six years.

"It's like you are running at 100 percent. Then all of the sudden you are going at 50 percent," Rasnake said.

Rasnake is one of the first patients to undergo a new minimally-invasive investigational procedure using a guided laser catheter at Florida Hospital.

"It allows us to have visualization inside the heart so we can see where exactly the laser is directed to," said Dr. George Monir, principal investigator at Florida Hospital.

The cardiologist inserts the catheter into a vein in the patient's leg and that goes up into the heart using a new investigational endoscopic video camera.

Once the doctor is in the area that is short-circuiting and sees the problem, the cardiologist then inflates the balloon and visualizes the target tissue. The laser is then turned on, which releases controlled arcs of light around the vein, destroying an area of abnormal tissue.

"It may, in the future, save time because you are covering a larger area as opposed to manually moving the catheter around," said Dr. Scott Pollak, a cardiologist at Florida Hospital.

A new study is taking a look at catheter ablation with this new system and comparing it to traditional drug therapy.

Florida Hospital is just one of 20 hospitals nationwide looking at the study.

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