Mending hearts without surgery
Elena Veytsman did not have a name until she was 7 months old. Azerbaijani doctors told her mother that the little girl, born premature, would not survive due to a hole in her heart. Elena was born with ventricular septal defect (VSD), a birth defect in which there is a hole in the wall that separates the two lower chambers of the heart. Last month at the age of 43, Elena’s heart was healed when interventional cardiologist Saibal Kar, MD, performed a rare minimally invasive procedure through a vein in her wrist.
Dr. Kar is one of the few physicians in the world performing transradial VSD closure through a small incision in the wrist. “Years ago, VSD was considered lethal,” says Dr. Kar. “In normal development the hole closes before birth, but in Elena’s case the hole remained. Generally, as children grow older the hole can get smaller in size.” In fact, Elena’s hole did indeed reduce in size, but it never quite went away. After having COVID-19 earlier in the year, she experienced mild symptoms which included breathlessness and fatigue, and she was referred to Dr. Kar.
“I had visited physicians all my life,” says Elena. “When I lived in Turkey I was told that I needed open heart surgery, but I decided against it. Then when I lived in Israel, I was told to keep an eye on my heart and no surgery was needed. But when I started to get out of breath in my two-story house, I decided to see my doctor.” After examination, Dr. Kar determined that over the years, her heart decreased in size, suggesting that it was necessary to close what remained of the hole.
“The good news is that because tissue had grown around the hole, the opening was small — small enough to use some of the latest closure devices that allow me to perform the procedure through a catheter without surgery,” says Dr. Kar. Usually closing a hole in the ventricle septal is very complicated and requires venous and arterial access but because her hole was small, Dr. Kar used a special device often used to close defects in infants which can be threaded through a very small catheter. “Even more exciting is that I was able to perform this procedure through a small incision in her wrist,” says Dr. Kar who is specially trained in this unique technique.
Today, just weeks after surgery, Elena is doing well. She has no scar and the hole in her heart is closed. “I am so thankful to Dr. Kar,” says Elena, “and thankful to my mother for never giving up on me and giving me a name.”