Young stroke survivors with a heart defect are now receiving aid from Marin General Hospital cardiologists in the form of a small device that spares them from open heart surgery.

Dr. Brian Strunk is trained to use the Amplatzer PFO Closure, which is about the size and shape of a quarter.

All fetuses have an opening between the upper two chambers of the heart.

“In about 25% of adults this hole remains open putting some of them at risk for having a stroke from clots that develop elsewhere in the body and then migrate through this hole to the brain” said Dr. Strunk.

Strunk said the device is still experimental and is available for use under a Humanitarian Device Exemption, clause D, by the federal government.

“It's not approved for general use ­ but only in certain situations,” he said. “The patients must have suffered a stroke and be at risk for another.”

The device is implanted using a catheter inserted through a vein. It is navigated to the heart and the site of the hole. The procedure takes from one to two hours.

Dr. Strunk performed the first PFO procedure in June in the hospital's Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and is planning his second in a few weeks.

August 9, 2006