Comparison of medium-term results of transcatheter correction versus surgical treatment for secundum type atrial septal defect combined with pulmonary valve stenosis.

This study was undertaken to compare the clinical results of traditional surgery and a percutaneous procedure for secundum type atrial septal defect (ASD) combined with pulmonary valve stenosis (PS). A total of 78 consecutive patients were identified between March 2004 and July 2012 in our institution. Thirty-five patients (44.9%) underwent percutaneous correction and the remaining 43 patients (55.1%) were treated surgically. All patients had simultaneous complete correction in both groups and no serious complications occurred. The surgical group was significantly younger (13.9 ± 13.0 versus 31.0 ± 17.5 years, P < 0.001) and had a longer mean hospital stay (12.6 ± 4.7 versus 5.3 ± 1.5 days, P < 0.001). There were no significant differences in defect size (18.0 ± 7.9 versus 16.9 ± 8.4 mm, P = 0.553) and transvalvular gradient detected by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) (74.7 ± 28.3 versus 87.6 ± 37.8 mmHg, P = 0.089) between the two groups. Significant tricuspid regurgitation (TR) decreased from 66% to 14% in the transcatheter group and from 40% to 9% in the surgical group. Mild pulmonary regurgitation was detected in 8 patients in the transcatheter cohort and in 6 patients in the surgical cohort after the procedure. At last follow-up, 83% and 93% of the patients in the transcatheter and surgical groups, respectively, were free of any symptoms, and a significant improvement from preprocedure was observed in the transcatheter group but not in the surgical group (P = 0.005 and P = 0.062). In conclusion, transcatheter correction is a valuable alternative to surgery and allows more patients to be effectively treated in China.