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Patching Device Repairs Hole in Heart
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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 However, the device effectively closed the holes completely in 8 of the 10 cases, Martinez reported.
According to Dr. Robert Beekman III, co-director of the heart center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, a version of the device is now the standard of care for a related heart problem called "atrial septal defects" -- holes between the two upper chambers of the heart that can appear at birth. Beekman has implanted such devices in hundreds of children with congenital heart defects.
However, ventricular septal defects "are very different heart problems," Beekman said. The ventricular septal defect repair device used at the Mayo Clinic remains experimental, he noted.
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"There is a lot more morbidity and complications [with the ventricular problem] than with atrial septal defect closure, so it is taking a lot more time for the Food and Drug Administration to approve it," Beekman said.
The procedures done for the adult heart attack patients at the Mayo Clinic were all successful, Martinez said, although one patient died five days later of an illness unrelated to the ventricular septal defect patch. Surgery was later performed successfully in the two patients where the hole remained partially open and in a third patient in whom a bacterial infection developed months later. All three of the patients survived, the researchers said.
More information
Septal defects and their treatment are described by the American Heart Association.
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Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
Last updated 5/10/2007
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SOURCES: Matthew W. Martinez, M.D., cardiology fellow, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn; Robert Beekman III, M.D., co-director, heart center, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center; May 10, 2007, scientific sessions, Society for Cardiovascular Angiogrphy and Interventions, Orlando, Fla.
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