Report from the 4th Vietnam Congress of Congenital and Structural Heart Disease (8-10 January 2014, Saigon, Vietnam) – “Fistulas from A to Z”

the morphology of the defect, he used various coils and implants made of nitinol wire mesh (type PDA, muscular VSD and others – American and Chinese production). In his material, no patient had either a heart rhythm disorder and cardiac conduction disease in the follow-up, or aortic valve regurgitation and tricuspid insufficiency, which may cause complications in such interventions. During the congress, a new pulmonary valve in the stent (Venus P Valve System), produced by Liftech, was presented. This very interesting product can be used in the case of a wider right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) – also after correction of the Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) with annular dilatation with patch, which is the most frequent in Poland. The implantation of the pulmonary valve is an outpatient procedure, whose main problem is the shortage of patients, who fully meet the criteria for the currently used " Melody " (maximum diameter 24 mm) and " Edwards " valves (maximum diameter 26 mm). Consultants of the venous valve are high quality experts such as Dr. Qureshi (UK) and Dr. Hijazi (US). With that valve, 10 procedures thus far have been performed in patients after surgical correction of TOF. For the first time in this congress, participants were directly acquainted with the method of implantation and valve's structure. It is made from pig pericardium and bound on a self-expanding nitinol stent, which does not require pre-stenting (as opposed to " Melody " and " Edwards " valves). Radial strength for this stent does not seem to be high, which indicates its potential application only in cases of dominant pulmonary regurgitation (frequent clinical problem). A number of procedures were performed live during the conference, usually by foreign experts. Within 3 days, 33 interventions, of any grade, were conducted. Procedures ranged from balloon pulmonary valvuloplasty (BPV) and balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV) to ASD closure, VSD closure and PDA closure, with different occluders for stent implantation in aortic coarctation, pulmonary artery and PDA, left atrial appendage closure etc. I was participating in effective BPV, performed in an infant (body mass 9.4 kg) with balloon catheter Valver produced by Balton Ltd. (op-SCIENTIFIC CHRONICLE A singularly interesting medical event was held under the banner 'Fistulas from A to Z' on 8-10 January 2014 in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon, Vietnam). The congress concerned the advancement of interventions for congenital and structural heart defects (CHD), particularly the problematic issue …