Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) Repair

An atrial septal defect (ASD) is a congenital heart defect in which there is a hole in the atrial septum or the wall which separates the right and left atria (upper chambers of heart).

Some of the symptoms of ASD include fatigue, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, or a decrease in exercise capacity. Usually patients have an audible heart murmur caused by the extra blood flow and therefore many patient get detected while they consult a physician for some other problem.

Patients with ASD are likely to remain asymptomatic for long time. Girls are generally twice as affected by ASD than boys.

Closing ASD with keyhole incisions

Cardiac surgeons perform the surgery on patients with ASD by making small incisions of 4 to 6 cm on the right side of the chest instead of the large midline incision in traditional open surgeries.

The surgery is performed by inserting a heart-lung machine through a small incision in the groin and stopping the heart for sewing the patch. An endoscope is inserted that provides a high-resolution image of the heart and ASD.

Nowadays Robotic assisted ASD repair is also being performed.

Benefits of Minimally Invasive Surgery

The usage of this technique enables the patients to recover more quickly than in traditional surgery. Even the scar is minimal and barely visible after the recovery of the patient. Other advantages include less bleeding, decreased risk of infection and decreased use of pain medication and early return to activities.

The patient can resume job in a short duration after recovery.