An ablation is when an electrophysiologist (cardiac electrician as mine called himself), runs a catheter into your heart either through the femoral or another vein/artery in your chest, and essentially creates scaring to prevent the erratic electrical signals from causing irregular heart beats. The latest technologies that I am aware of are 1) cryo-ablation, which is done with a cold "balloon" creating scaring around the pulmonary arteries and veins; and 2) Pulse Field ablation, which I am not familiar with. You can probably google (or duck-duck go), or just search on youtube to see some animations of what is involved. I was sedated to the level of being unconscious, but it is not major surgery (if you can call any heart surgery not major), and doesn't require general anesthesia. I was out of the hospital the same day as my surgery.

I don't think most people with A-Fib need to have an ablation. I was on meds, which controlled mine, for several years; for some people, it can be controlled for life with meds.