What should parents of children with preexisting heart disease who are considering interventional occlusion be aware of?

  Interventional occlusion of precardiac disease is increasingly sought after by patients due to its cosmetic advantages. Interventional procedures do have their advantages of minimal trauma, quick recovery and cosmetic incisions. Currently, there are two main routes of interventional occlusion for precordial disease: percutaneous (application of radiation or ultrasound guidance), and transthoracic (with an incision in the chest). There is a growing concern about the possible effects of the interventional blocker itself on the patient.  The first is the psychological impact, which may not be significant for a child, but in the future, when you grow up and become an adult, whenever you go for a chest X-ray or fluoroscopy or go through any security check, a metallic image will show up to remind you that you were a patient with a preexisting heart disease. You are different from others. I remember a colleague who had orthopedic surgery and had a metal nail in his body, and every time he went through security, it was a pain in the ass. Each time, he had to explain to get it out, and then he endured the pain and went to the hospital to get the nail out. The blocker itself is an alloy material. Will it alarm when the security check is sensitive? Beijing Fu Wai Hospital Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Hua Middle East Secondly, the heart has to beat itself for a lifetime, the weight of the blocker is very light, but it still needs the heart to beat with it, this energy consumption may be negligible for the average person. But once you encounter very harsh conditions, it’s hard to say. “A thousand miles without a needle”, a person carrying a school bag, the bag is lighter, if it is a hike, it will also be affected.  Then there is the blocker of the heavy metal itself will not release metal ions, it is not easy to say, there are already suspicions and reports abroad.  The blocker can work solely because the metal structure is compressed and finally eroded into the tissue. The final result of the erosion is not known at the time of the surgery. I have personally encountered several cases of aortic rupture due to blocker erosion that required emergency surgical repair. There have also been cases of tricuspid valve erosion resulting in tendon rupture and incomplete closure, requiring valve repair or even valve replacement. Erosion of the ventricular septum has led to conduction block requiring a pacemaker. In small children, the pacemaker electrode implantation can usually only be done open-chest, and repeated open-chests are required for installation until adulthood, when an intracardiac pacemaker with subcutaneous implantation can be installed, which is not only a financial burden for the child and parents, but also very painful.  Finally, because interventional procedures usually require vascular access, vascular complications are also a large category of problems that cannot be ignored.  In the United States, the FDA has not approved interventional occlusion of ventricular septal defects. Maybe it is because Americans are more cautious!