The last decade saw a dramatic change in the management of congenital heart defects. The introduction and development in echocardiography and Doppler modalities enable definitive diagnosis of congenital lesions without cardiac catheterization. At the same time, new therapeutic procedures for congenital defects using the catheter as a channel for different procedures were developed. These therap...

As a result of individual physicians' initiative, transcatheter closure of secundum atrial septal defects-a new procedure-was made available to patients in the Kaiser Permanente (KP) Southern California Region soon after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved use of the AMPLATZER Septal Occluder. This ingenious device and the procedure for its implantation are described along with r...

UNLABELLED Aortic root perforation is a potentially life-threatening complication that may occur during transseptal puncture and requires immediate repair. We present a 71-year-old man who was admitted for catheter ablation of persistent atypical atrial flutter. Fluoroscopic-guided transseptal puncture was performed to gain access to the left atrium. An unrecognized puncture of the aortic root ...

Echocardiography has greatly influenced the catheterization laboratory patient profile. The remarkable diagnostic precision of this tool has essentially eliminated the need for preoperative diagnostic catheterization in many of the common congenital lesions, such as tetralogy of Fallot, total anomalous pulmonary venous return, and endocardial cushion defects , . On the other hand, echocardiogra...

Objective: To examine whether transcatheter closure of secundum atrial septal defect (ASD) with the Amplatzer septal occluder leads to more myocardial injury in children than in adults. Design: In a prospective study with children and adults cardiac troponin I (cTnI) serum concentrations were determined by immunoassay (AxSYM, Abbott Laboratories) before, during, and up to 20 months after surgic...

Scimitar syndrome is a rare congenital heart disease characterised by anomalous pulmonary venous drainage to the inferior vena cava, aortopulmonary collaterals, hypoplasia of the right lung and intracardiac defects. Surgical correction remains the gold-standard therapy. However, non-surgical intervention has been reported effective in selected cases with scimitar syndrome. We report on a one-ye...

Percutaneous device closure for secundum atrial septal defects (ASDs) has been performed commonly and safely with high success rates. However, it is still challenging to close ASDs that are surrounded with deficient or hypermobile rims and could be compromised with an unexpected migration of device. We report a case of percutaneous Amplazter Septal Occluder (ASO; St. Jude Medical Inc., St. Paul...

OBJECTIVES We evaluated the efficiency and safety of the Occlutech Figulla device in percutaneous closure of secundum atrial septal defects (ASD). STUDY DESIGN The study included 28 patients (17 women, 11 men; mean age 43 years) who underwent percutaneous transcatheter closure using the Occlutech Figulla device for secundum ASDs causing a hemodynamically significant shunt. Defect size was est...

acute left atrial thrombosis at the site of the resection of the primary cribriform septum is an exceedingly rare and important complication after atrial septal defect (asd) closure with a pericardial or synthetic patch. this case report presents a mobile thrombus noted on the left atrium at the raw surface site of a resected cribriform primary septum that was not caught in the suture line with...