Balloon atrial septostomy: a weapon to challenge right heart failure after cardiac surgery

TL;DR

Balloon atrial septostomy is a promising new method to treat right heart failure after cardiac surgery, potentially reducing the need for long-term mechanical support.

Contribution

This paper introduces balloon atrial septostomy as a novel clinical approach for managing post-surgical right heart failure.

Findings

Balloon atrial septostomy provided good benefits in patients with post-surgical right heart failure.

The method may reduce dependence on mechanical circulatory support or heart transplantation.

Abstract

Right heart failure is a common complication after cardiac surgery, and its mortality remains high. The medical management and veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation has shown significant improvement in the majority of cases. However, a minority of patients may still require long-term mechanical circulatory support or heart transplantation. Balloon atrial septostomy is a new method for the prevention and treatment of right heart failure, which may avoid the patient’s dependence on mechanical circulatory support. We used this method to try to treat patients with right heart failure after cardiac surgery, and all received good benefits. Therefore, we selected several representative cases to report, in order to guide other qualified cardiac surgeons to carry out relevant clinical practice.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13019-024-02884-8.

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