Atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus, and pulmonary valve stenosis are common congenital heart diseases, and conventional treatments include open-chest, direct-view surgery as well as percutaneous interventional sealing under radiographic guidance. Conventional open-heart surgery requires stopping the heart through a median or lateral chest incision, then incising the heart and repairing the defect with a needle to sew a patch over the heart. Because of the large trauma and the need for cardiac arrest, “percutaneous interventional occlusion under radiation guidance” carried out by cardiology or radiology department has emerged after research, which has the advantages of small trauma, no cardiac arrest and no blood transfusion, and realizes the treatment of heart disease without surgery. However, this method has the risk of radiation damage and failure of blocking treatment, causing damage to the patient’s thyroid, breast, reproductive system and bone marrow, which is typical of a small wound outside and a large internal injury inside. In recent years, our surgeons have studied and combined the above two methods and introduced ultrasound technology to create a third method that has the advantages of both: ultrasound-guided transthoracic occlusion.
This method does not use radiation, no radiation, and the heart does not need to stop, no blood transfusion and extracorporeal circulation. At present, this technology has been widely carried out in advanced cardiac centers in China, especially the minimally invasive treatment of transaxillary precordial disease researched and carried out by the People’s Hospital of Henan Province, which has achieved very good treatment results and is deeply favored by patients. In order to realize the real meaning of minimally invasive treatment of precardiac disease, i.e. no incision and no radiation for treating precardiac disease, a new treatment method has been developed: ultrasound-guided percutaneous interventional occlusion. This new method is less invasive, with a wound only the size of a grain of rice, and replaces the traditional percutaneous interventional occlusion with a whole process done under ultrasound guidance, without the use of radiation, without radiation, without special protection, safe and reliable; most patients do not need general anesthesia, local anesthesia is sufficient. Since no radiation is needed, this new treatment method does not need to be performed in the catheterization room, but can be performed in the surgery room. The greatest benefit is that once the blockage fails, it can be immediately changed to open-chest direct vision surgery, which not only can cure the disease by entering the surgery room only once, reducing the burden and pain of patients, but also can guarantee the safety of patients to the maximum extent. Different methods are suitable for different patients: surgical open-chest direct vision surgery has the widest indications and is suitable for most patients, and is currently mainly used for complex precardiac disease and severe precardiac disease; ultrasound-guided percutaneous interventional occlusion is the least invasive and is suitable for older children, adolescents and adult patients; ultrasound-guided transthoracic occlusion is the most secure and is suitable for younger children with precardiac disease.