Atrial septostomy

Atrial septostomy
Balloon atrial septostomy
ICD-9-CM	35.41
[edit on Wikidata]

Atrial septostomy is a surgical procedure in which a small hole is created between the upper two chambers of the heart, the atria. This procedure is primarily used to palliate dextro-Transposition of the great arteries or d-TGA (often imprecisely called transposition of the great arteries), a life-threatening cyanotic congenital heart defect seen in infants. It is performed prior to an arterial switch operation. Atrial septostomy has also seen limited use as a surgical treatment for pulmonary hypertension.^[1] The first atrial septostomy (then less precisely called a septectomy) was developed by Vivien Thomas in a canine model and performed in humans by Alfred Blalock. The Rashkind balloon procedure, a common atrial septostomy technique, was developed in 1966 by American cardiologist William Rashkind at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

There are two types of this procedure: balloon atrial septostomy (also called endovascular atrial septostomy, Rashkind atrial balloon septostomy, or simply Rashkind's procedure) and blade atrial septostomy (also called static balloon atrial septostomy).