Mar 13, 2004
New heart procedure is one-third cheaper
by Wong Sher Maine
FIVE children who were born with holes in the walls separating the lower chambers of their hearts have had them closed successfully here for the first time without needing open heart surgery.
Instead, doctors at Gleneagles Hospital passed a catheter, or tube, into their groins, which carried a nickel-titanium plug up to their hearts to seal the hole.
Until last week, major heart surgery costing more than $30,000 was the only option here for children born with this kind of defect.
The new procedure costs about $19,000, or about a third less, and children can go home after just one night, instead of four or five.
And instead of a permanent scar on their chests, the only mark they would have is temporary bruising where the catheter is put in.
Said one of the doctors, consultant paediatric cardiologist Chan Kit Yee: 'The procedure is less invasive and parents don't have to take such long leave to look after their children, who are less traumatised.'
About 100 children are born every year with ventricular septal defects, that is, a hole in the wall that separates the two lower chambers of the heart.
They make up 20 per cent of all heart defects at birth.
Doctors at Gleneagles have been closing holes between the upper chambers, or atria, of the heart using catheters since 1997.
But the technology to navigate the relatively complicated lower chambers of the heart developed only recently, said consultant paediatric cardiologist William Yip, who led the team.
In fact, the team treated the five children, aged between two and five years old, over three days last week because they had an expert on this procedure visiting from the United States.
About half of all holes in the heart close on their own while the other half may require treatment, said Professor Yip.
If left untreated, these congenital defects may result in heart failure and cause pressure in the lungs to rise abnormally high.
Children who suffer from it also tend to get tired easily.
However, the new procedure is suitable only for children over 8kg as the heart has to be big enough for the catheter to manoeuvre around it.
At a press conference yesterday, the five children were in high spirits, riding around on tricycles and playing with their parents, who said the procedure was fuss-free.
General practitioner Cindy Yang said her three-year-old son Ryan was behaving normally a day afterwards.
'We were elated when we were told that this procedure was an option for us. We know how much open heart surgery involves and it's fantastic how fast he recovered,' she said.
Prof Yip said the hospital would monitor how the patients do over the long run, but expected outcomes to be as good as for surgery.
Occasionally, however, the plugs do dislodge. 'Then we have to fish it out, which is much more difficult (than putting it in). We pray it doesn't happen.'
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