Doctors at the University Medical Centre in HCM City perform transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement on a patient with repaired tetralogy of Fallot. (Photo courtesy of the hospital) Transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement is a minimally invasive surgery toreplace a failing pulmonary valve, said Dr. Cao Dang Khang, head of the hospital’spediatric cardiovascular surgery department.
The procedure helps improve blood flow with lower risk of infection and fasterrecovery than open surgery, he said.
The hospital has so far performed the procedure for five patients with repairedtetralogy of Fallot.
Tetralogy of Fallot, a birth defect that affects normal blood flow through theheart, accounts for between 5% and 10% of all congenital cardiac defects,cardiologists said.
A young patient from Binh Duong was diagnosed with tetralogy of Fallot and wastreated by surgery at the hospital when she was two years old.
She then had regular follow-up visits with pediatric cardiologists at thehospital after the surgery.
Doctors said that blood flow to the lungs may still be restricted aftertetralogy of Fallot surgery and patients with repaired tetralogy of Fallot mayhave a leaky pulmonary valve and need to have their pulmonary valve replaced.
The 14-year-old patient has recently undergone transcatheter pulmonary valvereplacement that took two hours at the hospital.
Her health condition is now stable and she lives an active life after thesurgery./.
VNA
