SCIENTIFIC CHRONICLE
Report from the 4th Vietnam Congress of Congenital and Structural Heart Disease
(8-10 January 2014, Saigon, Vietnam) – “Fistulas from A to Z”

A singularly interesting medical event was held under the banner ‘Fistulas from A to Z’ on 8-10 January 2014 in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon, Vietnam). The congress concerned the advancement of interventions for congenital and structural heart defects (CHD), particularly the problematic issue of vascular fistulas. I was invited as a lecturer and proctor. My presentation referred to the application of new balloon catheters (Valver) for valvuloplasty and angioplasty. Our experience concerning these Polish catheters was satisfactory and it had been discussed before [1].
More than 300 people gathered to attend the conference as well as the illustrious group of faculties representing all continents. On the first day (8 January), the advancement of the main techniques, currently applied to interventions for the treatment of CHD, was discussed. One of the most significant lectures were delivered by Dr Miro from Canada (“PDA closure in small babies”) and Dr Amin (US) concerning interventions for the ASD closure. The latter one referred to the meaning of the deficient rim and its role in avoiding serious complications that may occur following surgery, such as atrial or aortic wall erosion. According to the conclusion of that lecture, patients who underwent the transcatheter ASD closure, should remain under lifelong observation. At least once a year, ECHO should be conducted (in order to exclude the presence of the pericardial fluid) as well as ECG (for exclusion of the iatrogenic arrhythmia). Dr. Carminati (Italy) talked about the significance of the patent foramen ovale closure (PFO) in patients with the cryptogenic stroke, regardless of the negative results of randomized “Closure” trials (concerning StarFlex implant) and “Respect” trial (realized with Amplatzer PFO Occluder). He presented his doubts about those results and added that it will be an unresolved issue for a long time. Dr. Le, a Vietnamese working in Germany, creator of Nit-Occlud Le VSD implant, a good spirit of the conference, declaimed about the possibility of percutaneous closure of doubly committed VSD (also with the usage of his implant). Dr. Celebi (Turkey) discussed his experience with percutaneous closures of VSD (mainly perimembranous) with the application of different implants. Depending on the morphology of the defect, he used various coils and implants made of nitinol wire mesh (type PDA, muscular VSD and others – American and Chinese production). In his material, no patient had...


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