after ASD closure using Amplatzer device. Help me

Welcome to the forum.

Have you asked your doctor these questions? He/she would be the best person to comment about such. I've never heard of this device, but took some time to look online. Interesting technique. The literature I read seems to indicate that over time that the tissue of the heart grows over the device. There is another device, also installed by catheter, that also, over time, has tissue grow over it.

If this is the case, it would seem unlikely that the device would shift if modestly subject to the cases you describe. Nevertheless, your doctor should be asked these questions and adjustments to your lifestyle, if applicable, should be made on the doctors recommendations.

While researching, I found a link to a site discussing injuries and illnesses to sports players. One, quite far down on the page, concerned a Hockey Player that had a stroke due to an uncorrected hole in the heart. It was suggested in the article that a device similar to what you describe will be used to repair the hole. It was also suggested that he will likely be returning to the sport. If that was the case, there are few sports that inflict as much physical abuse on its participants as Hockey.

undisclosedinjury.blogspot.com/2014_02_01_archive.html

As I said, your doctor would be the best source of info. Nevertheless, it's a fascinating minimally invasive procedure. Of the displacements I read about, they were all very near the time of the initial placement of the device.

As Kitt (she's a moderator here) said of ablation, we don't read of stories of successful procedures, we hear about the ones that didn't work as hoped. But there are many successful procedures. I suspect the same is with the Amplatzer, many many are successful and without complications.

The medical term is endothelialize for the tissue growth, for many it occurs in 3 months, the range 3 to 6 months, you're well past both. An autopsy photo (83 year old male that received an Amplatzer) showed minimal tissue growth several months after placement around the peripheral edges of the device, but the device was well placed. This gentleman died of pneumonia, unrelated to the Amplatzer or disorder it was used to correct. The article intimated that his advanced age and frail constitution contributed to the delay in tissue growth.

I wish you well, I strongly suspect you'll be fine.

ok i found this and it actually answer my question;

DEVICE CLOSURE OF CONGENITAL HEART DEFECTS
Dr. Dylan Taylor and Pam Heggie


An atrial septal defect (ASD) is a hole between the two upper chambers of the heart. This hole allows blood to flow from the left to the right where it is usually separated. In turn this means that the right side of the heart is doing a little extra work every heart beat. Until recently, the only way to close these holes was to have open heart surgery. Now, for some of these holes there is an easier way.

Since 1997 the Northern Alberta Adult Congenital Heart (NAACH) program has been performing device closures of ASDs instead of sending patients for surgery. Dr. Dylan Taylor has been closing these holes with an Amplatzer occluder device with great success. From 1997 to 2005 a total of 210 patients from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, & British Columbia have had their holes closed by Dr. Taylor. Of those 204 were successfully closed and six had to go on to have surgery because the hole was too big for the device. To date, we have had no serious complications.

The Amplatzer device is put into your heart using a “catheter technique”. A catheter is a small, hollow plastic tube, similar to a long, skinny drinking straw. The catheter is inserted into the vein in your groin (the femoral vein) that is connected to your heart. The Amplatzer device is so flexible it can be folded into the catheter. Then it can travel up the femoral vein in the catheter and into your heart. Once the device is in the right place in your heart it is “deployed” or pushed out of the tip of the catheter to go across the hole. An Amplatzer is made of a soft metal alloy mesh, known as Nitinol which looks like a very tiny chicken wire fence. Inside the metal mesh is a thin layer of Dacron, which is a soft cotton-like cloth. The device is very flexible and always goes back to the same shape even after being bent. The Amplatzer device looks like two flat mushroom caps joined at the stem. The “stem” or middle part of the Amplatzer device fills the hole. When the Amplatzer device is pushed out of the catheter, one flat side will be on one side of the hole, the stem will go through the middle, and the other flat side will be on the other side of the hole. The device will then provide a framework for the tissue to grow over and seal the hole. Your body begins by making a thin layer of blood clot over the mesh and Dacron, and then the lining cell layer grows over it. It’s like growing your own patch for the hole in your heart. This begins a few minutes after the device is put in, and takes days to weeks to finish. The length of time it takes depends on how big an Amplatzer device was required.

The biggest advantage to the catheter technique is the recovery. Your recovery is much faster than if you had to have open-heart surgery. After open-heart surgery your recovery takes six to eight weeks. After a device closure, you will need to take it easy for 48 hours. Don’t do any heavy lifting (weights or heavy grocery bags) or straining (running, jumping, or vacuuming) until after that. This is a precaution to give your groin site enough time to heal. Your heart itself does not have any limitations. After 48 hours you can return to work and begin getting back to your normal activities.

The future of catheter procedures to help fix congenital heart defects is growing. A small number of other heart defects have also been successfully treated by catheter techniques. Hopefully, in time we will have even more options to help patients with congenital heart disease.

http://www.cachnet.org/thebeat/summer2006_deviceclosure.html

JR,

Here is what I found:

The most established device for ASD closure is the Amplatzer septal occluder. This is made from a double nitinol disk with a polyester coat.

Placement of septal occlusion device.

Access is gained via the right femoral vein using a 9F sheath. A 6F multipurpose catheter is mounted on a soft ‘J’ tipped guidewire and passed into the right atrium via the inferior vena cava. The wire is then passed across the atrial septum, guided by a combination of fluoroscopy at 20° left anterior oblique tilt and continuous observation of the TOE. This is generally straightforward with ASDs but can be more challenging with PFOs where a number of patient positioning manoeuvres and attempts may be required. If a PFO cannot be crossed, the procedure is abandoned. There is no indication for the formation of an iatrogenic atrial tract with a trans-septal needle.

After guidewire placement, a larger sheath is advanced. The septal closure device is then loaded onto the applicator and inserted into the sheath; this is commonly performed under water to allow very careful de-airing. The device in its sheath is then advanced into the left atrium, and the first disk deployed by slowly advancing the device out of the sheath. This is then pulled back against the left side of the inter-atrial septum before the second disk is deployed on the right side by pulling back further on the delivery sheath.

The TEE is then used to confirm correct placement and stability, often by vigorous movement of the device during observation (the ‘wiggle’ test). When stability has been confirmed and all cardiac structures have been examined, the device is deployed and the applicator removed. ^{Reference: University of Oxford}  

Link to info: http://ceaccp.oxfordjournals.org/content/8/1/16.full