ASD closure without surgery
Closure of Holes in the Heart Without Surgery – A Dream Turned Reality!!
By Admin
8-10/1000 live born babies have congenital defects in the heart. The most common defects are “Holes in the Heart.” For last six- seven decades, the only treatment available was surgical closure. Though the ultimate outcome was good, these children had to inevitably suffer the pain, scar and long hospital stay. From 1970s onwards, a group of cardiologists started thinking differently. They experimented on animals by creating holes in their hearts and then tried closing them without surgery. Gradually they replicated the whole procedure on humans. For the last twenty years, nonsurgical closure or device closure has been the norm.
The Common Holes:
The commonest holes are VSD (Ventricular Septal defect), ASD (Atrial Septal Defect) and PDA (Patent Ductus Arteriosus). VSD is a hole in the interventricular septum or wall between two lower chambers (RV and LV). ASD is the name of the hole in interatrial septum and PDA is actually an extra pipe connecting Aorta and Pulmonary Artery.
Read more about the holes
Of these three, VSDs are the commonest lesion about 25-30% of all congenital heart defect whereas ASD and PDA are about 5-8% of them. Another point to remember is that all of us are born with small ASD and small PDA. However, VSD is never found in normal heart.
Click here to Read more abut Nonsurgical Closure – the basic techniques
Article by: Dr Maitri Chaudhuri MD(Pediatrics), Fellow National Board(Pediatric Cardiology) Consultant Pediatric Cardiologist Vikram Hospitals, BangaloreAtrial Septal defect (ASD) Device Closure in Detail
By Admin | 2 comments
2Atrial Septal defect: When to Close an ASD?
a.Size More than 5-8mm
b. Right Heart Enlargement
c. High Lung Pressures
d. Recurrent Pneumonias, Poor Weight Gain
ASD Device Closure is one of the earliest device closures.
Only ASDs in central portion of interatrial septum (Secundum ASD or FOSSA OVALIS ASD) can be closed by device.ASDs in topmost or lowest portion of the interatrial septum can be closed only surgically.Success rate is 95%. Risks include device migration, erosion, cardiac tamponade. But usually all these complications are immediately picked up by echo and angiography-fluoroscopy and the device is taken out by surgery and simultaneously the ASD is closed surgically.
Take Home Message!!:
1. Device Closures of Holes in Heart Is Effective, Safe and Time Tested Procedure.
2. It is painless and scar less and allows your child to resume normal life including school within 3 days.




