Intracardiac echocardiography to guide closure of atrial septal defects in children less than 15 kilograms

Background: Intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) is increasingly replacing transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) as the primary imaging technique to guide device closure of atrial septal defects (ASD). Owing to the length of the procedure, the use of TEE requires general anesthesia. Investigators have reported the usefulness of ICE in adults and children. However, little is known about the use of ICE in children whose weight is <15 kg. Therefore, this study examines the use of ICE guided secundum ASD closure in children <15 kg. Methods: Nineteen patients with a median age of 3.1 years (range 1.8–4.8), and median weight of 13.2 kg (range 8.0–14.4) underwent transcatheter occlusion (Amplatzer occluder) of a secundum ASD using ICE guidance. ICE was performed using an Acunav® catheter. The ICE catheter (10 F shaft) was introduced into an 11 F sheath in a contralateral femoral vein. Diagnostic as well as periprocedure imaging was obtained. Results: Sixteen patients had single, and three had multiple defects. Median defect size as measured by ICE was 16 mm (range 2.5–25). The median balloon stretched diameter (obtained in eight patients) was 18 mm (range 10–21); the median size of the defect for these eight patients was 15 mm (range of 8–20). Both techniques for measuring the defect correlated well with r = 0.94. The ASD occluder size ranged from 7 to 26 mm with a median of 18 mm. The procedure was successful in 16 patients who had a device implanted and no residual shunt. ASD occlusion was not attempted in two patients due to deficient rims and in one patient, the attempt failed due to left atrial disk prolapse through the ASD. Four patients experienced transient complications during the catheter procedure, including supra ventricular tachycardia, sinus bradycardia, and two with complete heart block (resolving with device removal); all had subsequent successful device placement. No complications were attributed to the use of ICE and specifically, no vascular injury was noted. Conclusions: Comparable to results with larger patients, ICE provides adequate imaging (preprocedure diagnosis and periprocedure guidance) during device occlusion of secundum ASDs with no significant complications. Thus, ICE can successfully be used in the closure of ASD in smaller patients (<15 kg) and eliminate the need for endotracheal intubation. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.