Ventricular septal rupture (VSR) after acute myocardial infarction is increasingly rare in the percutaneous coronary intervention era but mortality remains high. Prompt diagnosis is key and definitive surgery, though challenging and associated with high mortality, remains the treatment of choice. Alternatively, delaying surgery in stable patients may provide better results. Prolonged medical management is usually futile, but includes afterload reduction and intra-aortic balloon pump placement. Using full mechanical support to delay surgery is an attractive option, but data on success is limited to case reports.
Finally, percutaneous VSR closure may be used as a temporizing measure to reduce shunt, or for patients in the sub-acute to chronic period whose comorbidities preclude surgical repair. Tracy Walker Jersey
PMID: 24970335
See also:
Multimodality cardiac imaging of a ventricular septal rupture post myocardial infarction: a case report.
Dhaliwal S, Ducas R, Shuangbo L, Horne D, Lee J, Hussain F, Kirkpatrick ID, Jassal DS.
BMC Res Notes. 2012 Oct 25;5:583.
PMID:23098382. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23098382