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OUTPATIENT CLOSURE OF PATENT DUCTUS ARTERIOSUS.

Closure of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) may now be added to the list of procedures that can occasionally be performed in the cardiac-catheterization laboratory instead of the operating room. These pediatric cardiologists used a Rashkind PDA Occluder, which uses a special catheter to position a double umbrella in the PDA, in 23 children with PDAs diagnosed by echocardiography. Closure was successful in all patients, and 19 of the 23 were discharged on the same day the procedure was done.

Routine use of this technique will require study of recanalization rates and the incidence of endocarditis. Furthermore, whether it can be applied to adults with elevated pulmonary-artery pressures is unclear. Since surgical repair of PDAs is safe and effective, this technique will have to be extraordinarily successful to make surgery obsolete, but these initial results suggest that it will have a role in at least some hospitals.

— THL

Published in Journal Watch General Medicine May 13, 1988

Citation(s):

Wessel D L; Keane J F; Parness I; Lock J E. Outpatient closure of the patent ductus arteriosus. Circulation 1988 May 77 1068-1071.

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