FDA APPROVES NEW CARDIAC DEVICE:

DRISCOLL IS FIRST & ONLY IN SOUTH TEXAS TO OFFER
NON-SURGICAL CLOSURE OF VENTRICULAR SEPTAL DEFECT

New technology and training offers less invasive procedure
minimizing rehabilitation time, hospitalization days, and risks associated with open heart surgery.

(Corpus Christi, TX) The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved device for percutaneous closure of muscular Ventricular Septal Defect (mVSD), a congenital heart defect. With the approval, Driscoll Children’s Hospital is the first and only facility in South Texas to offer a non-surgical closure of the muscular VSD for pediatric patients.

The new VSD closure procedure is performed by a specially trained pediatric cardiologist with a team of nurses and technicians, in the hospital’s catheterization laboratory, thus avoiding an open-heart surgical procedure. Patients benefit from a shorter hospital stay and recovery time, fewer complications, and less chance of infection and bleeding. Most patients resume normal activities within a few days following the procedure.

Prior to the approval, Driscoll performed this procedure in emergent situations only on compassionate basis.

“Our continuous commitment is to provide the best for our children through quality healthcare,” says Steve Woerner, President and C.E.O. of Driscoll. “This state-of-the-art technology and training will benefit our patients with a shorter hospital stay and recovery.”

Each year, more than 400 South Texas babies (40,000 babies nationwide) are born with congenital heart defects. Cardiac defects result when the heart fails to develop normally after conception, and range in severity from simple problems such as “holes” between chambers to very severe malformations such as complete absence of one of more chambers or valves.

Ventricular septal defect (VSD) is the most common congenital heart defect and is a hole in the heart’s wall that separates the two lower chambers. The opening allows for increased blood flow and forces the heart to work harder than normal. Patients with VSD can become easily fatigued, have difficulty breathing, fail to grown normally, and be susceptible to colds, pneumonia, and other infectious diseases. If left untreated, VSD can lead to heart arrhythmias, heart failure, high blood pressure, stroke, and even death.

Traditionally, VSD was repaired through open heart surgery, requiring incisions through the breastbone and heart muscle, followed by sewing a patch over the larger defects or stitches in the smaller defects, restoring normal blood circulation. A flexible, hour glass plug made of a nitinol (nickel and titanium alloy) wire mesh is placed in the heart through a small catheter from the groin vessel. It contracts into the catheter and expands once it’s in the hole. Once in position, the device is released where tissue will grow over the device within three to six months.

Driscoll has been performing device closure of atrial septal defect (ASD), a less complicated but similar procedure, for approximately five years.

About Driscoll Children’s Hospital
“Improve the health of adults and you give them back their health …
Improve the health of children and you give them their life.”

Since opening its doors in 1953, Driscoll Children’s Hospital has been offering hope and healing to the children of South Texas for half a century. The facility is a 189-bed pediatric tertiary care center with pediatric board-certified specialists representing 19 medical and nine surgical specialties. Each year, more than 6,000 children are admitted for inpatient care, 5,000 for day surgery, and 50,000 for outpatient primary and specialty care, as well as 40,000 for emergency care, as the first South Texas hospital with emergency services exclusively for children. Additionally, Driscoll maintains a state-of-the-art ground/air transport team, 20-bed pediatric intensive care unit, 40-bed neonatal intensive care unit, and specialized medical outreach.

www.driscollchildrens.org

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