This is a procedure in cardiac cath lab for increasing the size of hole (PFO) by using a balloon that is present between two upper chambers of heart (atrial septum). This is only a palliative procedure.
Most common indication for doing this procedure is when there is transposition of great vessels (d-TGA) with intact ventricular septum with no PDA and small Patent foramen ovale (PFO) or atrial septal defect.
By doing this, proper mixing of impure and pure blood can be done and saturation can be improved and later on final surgical correction can be planned.
This is mostly done keeping the child in general anesthesia during the procedure.
We take femoral vein in leg and then we cross atrial septum by using a wire.
On this wire, we advance a balloon and inflate across the PFO so that size of PFO can be increased.