Atrial septal defect

by Wayne Strickland

An atrial septal defect (ASD) - oftentimes known as hole within the heart - is a kind of congenital heart defect where there's an unnatural opening up within the separating wall between the higher filling chambers in the coronary heart (the atria).

Generally ASDs are identified and dealt with properly with few or absolutely no troubles.

To comprehend this particular defect, it very first really helps to evaluate some fundamentals about the way a proper heart commonly operates.ital

The heart has 4 chambers: The 2 lower pumping chambers are known as the ventricles, and the two upper filling chambers are the atria.

In the healthy heart, bloodstream which returns from your body to the right-sided filling chamber (right atrium) is short of fresh air. This blood moves towards the right-sided pumping chamber (right ventricle), and subsequently to the lungs to get oxygen. The blood that is enriched with much needed oxygen comes back to the left atrium, then to the left ventricle. It is then moved out to the body with the aorta, a big blood vessel which carries the blood to the smaller blood vessels in your body. The right and left filling chambers are usually divided by a thin shared wall, called the atrial septum.

Children with an atrial septal defect come with an opening in the wall (septum) between the atria. Because of this, some oxygen rich blood from the left atrium runs through the hole in the septum into the right atrium, where it combines with oxygen-poor blood and boosts the entire quantity of blood that moves toward the lungs. The elevated blood circulation to your lungs creates a swishing sound, termed as a heart murmur. This heart murmur, together with other specific heart sounds which might be detected by a cardiologist, could be indications that a child has an ASD.

ASDs might be found in various places on the atrial septum, and so they might be various sizes. The signs or symptoms and medical care of the defect is dependent upon those factors. In certain rare cases, ASDs are part of more complicated forms of congenital heart disease. It is not clear why, but ASDs are usually more common in girls than in boys.

Treatment options assuming closure is required:

1) Least invasive 30 minute catheterization procedure is done percutaneously (through the skin). The device is attached to a catheter, which is inserted into a vein in the groin and advanced to the heart and through the defect, guided by X-ray and intracardiac echo. As the device is slowly pushed out of the catheter, it opens up to cover each edge of the defect, sealing it closed. Over time, tissue grows over the implant and it becomes part of the heart. This procedure requires patients to be on blood thinners for approximately six months.