This invention is a method for treating a patient diagnosed with atrial arrhythmia by forming a circumferential conduction block along a circumferential path of tissue in a pulmonary vein wall that circumscribes the pulmonary vein lumen and transects the electrical conductivity of the pulmonary vein such that conduction is blocked along the longitudinal axis of the vein wall and into the left atrial wall. The method is performed to treat a patient with a focal arrythmogenic origin along the pulmonary vein wall by either ablating the focal origin or by isolating the focal origin from the atrial wall with the circumferential conduction block. The circumferential conduction block is also formed in a pulmonary vein in order to bridge the adjacent ends of two linear lesions, wherein each linear lesion is formed to extend between the pulmonary vein and another adjacent pulmonary vein in a less-invasive “maze”-type procedure. A circumferential ablation element in a circumferential ablation device assembly is used in a percutaneous translumenal catheter technique in order to form the circumferential conduction block in the pulmonary vein wall.