Patent ID: 8486063

Claim:
A method of ablating cardiac tissue of a patient the method comprising: advancing an ablation catheter into contact with a target tissue in the patient's heart, the ablation catheter comprising a plurality of electrodes in electrical communication with an RF generator having a user interface; placing an indifferent electrode in contact with the patient; selecting a first energy delivery mode from the user interface; delivering RF energy to at least one of the electrodes of the ablation catheter in the first energy delivery mode to ablate the target tissue; assessing the condition of the target tissue; selecting a second energy delivery mode from the user interface that is different than the first energy delivery mode; and delivering RF energy to at least one of the electrodes of the ablation catheter in the second energy delivery mode to ablate the target tissue, wherein the selecting step comprises selecting from the group consisting of a monopolar only energy delivery mode, a bipolar only delivery mode, and a combined bipolar/monopolar energy delivery mode.