ASD Closure by Catheterization

The idea of closing the congenital abnormal opening of the heart by Catheter has been in process since the early eighties, the plugs used at that time to close these opening was suffering from many problems making it difficult to use.

Since 1997a new type of heart plugs has been designed consisting of metalic mixture, this type has been characterized by excellent accuracy  and the ability to preserve the shape and fit easily in the opening.

After the process of closure and within six months at most, these plugs cover the inner membrane of the heart and blood vessel seal so that it becomes part of the wall.

In the beginning the plugs size the opened vessel channels which have conical shape designed to be (innate in shape) and have sizes of 4-8mm and can close these channels with high efficiency of more than 99% and without complication and this procedure in the average is nor consuming more than an half hour and the patient is discharged from the hospital on the same day and often the patient also not need any treatments after the procedure.

After that many plugs designed to close the opening between the two Atrium, and these plugs can close opening from 4mm diameter to 40mm diameter.

The main point is the mode of selecting the cases where it is necessary to have the edges of the openingcapable of carrying the plug and therefore the choice of the case depends on result of the transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) to check the edge and the size of the opening.