A new study suggests early treatment of a heart defect is
far more effective than allowing the patient to wait until
symptoms show.
Doctors have debated when to treat this "hole," called
congenital atrial septal defects (ASD), saying it was
unneccessary until the patient started to show symptoms.
But researchers at the University of Toronto, in Toronto,
Ontario, say earlier treatment can prevent symptoms later
on.
ASD patients are usually born with the hole and often do
not show symptoms until middle age. The hole causes the
right side of the heart to enlarge because it needs to work
harder to pump blood, causing irregular heart beat,
fatigue, lung damage, heart failure or stroke. Researchers
examined 82 men and 131 women from 16 to 80 years old who
underwent reparative surgery to have a hole in their heart
closed. Patients younger than 40 reported few problems with
irregular heartbeat after the surgery than older
patients.
"The longer you go without the surgery, the larger your
heart becomes and the more likely it is that even after you
fix it, you're going to have ongoing or further (heart)
rhythm problems," says researcher Dr. Michael
Gatzoulis.
This study appears in the March 18 issue of The New England
Journal of Medicine.