Atrial septal defect
Atrial septal defect Causes
The causes if ASD is still not known. ASD causes the blood to thrust from left to right due to the pressure of the left atrial is a little higher than the right atrail pressure and this situation causes the large quantity of blood through a defect. This condition causes the right heart volume to overload affecting the right atrium, right ventricle and pulmonary arteries. Finally, the right atrium becomes larger and the right ventricle expands to contain the augmented volume of blood. Augmented pulmonary vascular conflict and right ventricular hypertrophy will follow if pulmonary artery hypertensions build up, this unusual in children. Setback of the thrust path results when there is an irrevocable pulmonary artery hypertension in some adult patients which also leads to the blood not oxygenated entering complete circulation resulting to cyanosis
Atrial septal defect Definition
Atrial septal defect (ASD) is an abnormality or a hereditary heart defect in the interatrial septum of the heart because of the embryonic foramen to stop from closing normally.
Atrial septal defect Symptoms and Signs
For children: feeling tired after extreme physical activity frequent respiratory tract infections growth retardation if the patient has large shunts seldom development of heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, infective endocarditis For adults: fatigability dyspnea on exertion For patients that have large shunts a low-pitched diastolic mumble is noticed at the lower left sternal margin, which becomes more evident on stimulation. Other signs are broadly split S 2 resulted from the late closing of the pulmonic valve, and a systolic tick or delayed systolic mumble at the apex caused by mitral valve prolapse that rarely affects older children with ASD. Older patients with huge, uncorrected abnormalities and permanent pulmonary artery hypertension, auscultation shows an emphasize dS2. A pulmonary discharge tick and a clear S4 may also appear. Clubbing and cyanosis turn out to be obvious; syncope and hemoptysis may happen with rigorous pulmonary vascular ailment.
Atrial septal defect Treatment
Patients with ASD that is not complicated and with evident large left-to-right shunting operative repair is advised. The operation is done usually when the patient is between ages 2 and 4. Operation must not be performed on patients that have small abnormalities and insignificant left-to-right shunts while patients who have large abnormalities, may require immediate operational closure and stitches to or a patch graft. Catheter closure or transcatheter closure has been developed by physicians as a new procedure. The surgeon creates a small incision in the groin to insert the catheters and moves the catheters into the heaet and places the closure device in ASD diagonally. Take note that this procedure is not applicable to all patients.