What is cardiac patent foramen ovale?

The fetal heart has an oval foramen open between the left and right atria, which is made open by blood flow from right to left during fetal life. Normal pulmonary circulation is established after birth, and as the child cries at birth, the pressure in the left atrium rises more than in the right atrium, thus causing the oval valve to tightly cover the oval fossa to form a functional closure that reaches anatomic overlap after one year. Because the foramen ovale usually reaches anatomic closure gradually within one year after birth, it was previously thought that patients with unclosed foramen ovale were asymptomatic and did not require special management, so most clinical studies refer to failure of closure beyond the age of three years as unclosed foramen ovale. Ovular foramen insufficiency is one of the congenital heart diseases in pediatric patients, but neonatal oval foramen insufficiency is not a disease state. Current studies in the literature suggest that oval foramen nonisolation is present in approximately 25-30% of the population. However, the disease is usually asymptomatic and does not require specific treatment. If there are serious complications due to patent foramen ovale, prompt treatment is required. The diagnosis of the disease can be confirmed by cardiac ultrasound. In the past, treatment of patent foramen ovale relied mainly on surgical procedures, but they may cause complications such as atrial fibrillation, pericardial effusion, postoperative bleeding and wound infection, and therefore have been rarely used in recent years. With the development of cardiac catheterization techniques, a significant proportion of left-to-right shunt congenital heart disease can be radically treated by intervention. This technique allows permanent closure of the open foramen ovale and is safe and effective.