Platypnea-orthodeoxia syndrome after failed percutaneous closure of secundum atrial septal defect.

We report a 51-year-old patient with platypnea-orthodeoxia syndrome after percutaneous closure of a secundum atrial septal defect, an unusual complication of this modality of treatment. Echocardiography, the main diagnostic technique in the present case, showed that one of the percutaneous device's rims was fixed to the anterior wall of the inferior cava vein. Furthermore it showed that the blood flowed from the inferior cava vein, through the defect in the atrial septum, into the left atria.