INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Ostium secundum atrial septal defects require closure. Echocardiographic studies have reported that, in 7% of cases, the Amplatzer occluder is orientated perpendicular to the rim of the defect. This article describes the use of an ancillary technique involving a balloon catheter that enables the Amplatzer device to be positioned transversely. METHODS We report six ...

Transcatheter closure for atrial septal defect (ASD) and patent foramen ovale (PFO) is a promising alternative to surgical closure or anticoagulant therapy. A potential complication is thrombus formation on the device after implantation. From February 2001 to June 2003, 66 patients with atrial communication were treated successfully with the Amplatzer device (16 septal and 20 PFO occluders) or ...

Cardiac erosion related to transcatheter atrial septal defect closure devices is of increasing concern. Erosion is reported to have occurred with most of currently available occluder devices. Perhaps due to the very large number of implants worldwide, the Amplatzer (St Jude) occluder is associated with the majority of cardiac erosion events reported in the literature. Best current estimates of ...

BACKGROUND Intraoperative device closure of perimembranous ventricular septal defect(VSD) through a lower mini-sternotomy is safe, less invasive, and has excellent surgical and cosmetic outcomes. Our study is to evaluate the feasibility of closing VSD under guidance of trans-epicardial echocardiography. METHODS We reviewed the clinical course of 41 patients referred to our institution for min...