Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery
Vol.27 No.6 2011 (286-289)

Akane Kadota2), Noboru Inamura1), Yuji Hamamichi1), Yukiko Kawazu1), and Futoshi Kayatani1)

Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Osaka Medical Center And Research Institute For Maternal And Child Health, Osaka, Japan1), Department of Pediatrics, Mitsubishi Kyoto Hospital, Kyoto, Japan2)

Abstract

Balloon atrial septostomy for very low birth weight infants is very difficult. We successfully performed balloon atrial septostomy for a preterm infant with a birth weight of 1,148 g with d-transposition of the great arteries with an intact ventricular septum on the day of birth. After a 5Fr sheath and a 5Fr balloon wedge pressure catheter were introduced into the umbilical vein and positioned through the ductus venosus, a Fogarty dilation atrioseptostomy catheter was advanced to the left atrium without difficulty. This is a new approach to balloon atrial septostomy for very low birth weight infants.