Recently, Professor Zhang Yushun’s team of Department of Structural Heart Disease of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University successfully occluded the “atrial septal defect (9 mm inferior cava type)” suffered by a patient with a “ventricular septal occluder” with the advanced 3D printing technology, acting as a pioneer in applying interventional therapy to the inferior cava type atrial septal defect, and marking the first operation ofoccludinginferior cava type atrial septal defect with a ventricular septal defect occluder in the world.
The patient, a middle-aged woman being 39 years old, was diagnosed as inferior cava type atrial septal defect of congenital heart disease. She has suffered from heart disease for many years, repeatedly got flustered and felt dizzy and received treatment from many large domestic hospitals but failed due to the risk of surgical operation that cannot be undertaken by the patient, pain of the wound and surgical scars affecting aesthetic effect and other factors. Then, she went to the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University for help from Professor Zhang Yushun, hoping to receive interventional occlusion operation.
The inferior cava type atrial septal defect is the contraindication of interventional therapy. A surgeon, based on the heart model of the patient upon 3D printing before surgery, punctured from femoral vein and accurately placed the large-size PDA occluder selected in advance in the inferior cava type atrial septal defect, such as inserting a “bottle stopper” in the defect part, breaking through the contraindication that a interventional therapy cannot be applied to the inferior cava type atrial septal defect.
Professor Zhang Yushun analyzes and believes that the PDA occluder used in the past has short edge and long waist (longitude), while the ventricular septal occluder of membranous part has short edge and waist, which neither protrudes into the inferior vena cava nor affects the blood flow after placement. Based on this concept, with the cooperation of Interventional Operation Room and cardiac ultrasound, the operation team guided by Director Zhang Yushun only spent 30 minutes in successfully completing the surgery. The patient recovered well after the operation, and the position of the occluder was normal without residual diffluence.
The success of occluding the inferior cava type atrial septal defect with a “ventricular septal occluder of membranous part” embodies the leading position and keen innovative thinking of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University in the field. The structural heart disease team of the hospital is expected to cooperate with ultrasound, imaging, 3D printing model design teams in an all-round way, constantly innovate and make breakthrough of the application of 3D printing technology in cardiovascular disease, usher into a new privately-customized era for structural heart disease, present each patient with accurate and best therapeutic solution, thus accomplishing the mission of precision medicine of cardiovascular disease in Department of Structural Heart Disease. The success of operating complex congenital heart disease with 3D printing technology also makes a breakthrough in the corresponding forbidden field by the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, and pushes the 3D printing technology and interventional and integrated therapy of congenital heart disease to a new level.
