Closure of Holes in the Heart Without Surgery – A Dream Turned Reality!!
By Justin
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.
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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.
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Article by: Dr Maitri Chaudhuri MD(Pediatrics), Fellow National Board(Pediatric Cardiology) Consultant Pediatric Cardiologist Vikram Hospitals, Bangalore