Pioneering work
Commenting on the case report in an American Heart Association press release, Colin Derdeyn, MD, a neurointerventional radiologist at University of Iowa Health Care, Iowa City, who performs vein of Galen malformation embolizations on neonates, said: “The key advance here is to intervene before the physiologic events of birth can cause life-threatening heart failure.”
Dr. Derdeyn, who is a past chair of the American Heart Association’s Stroke Council, cautioned that one successful case is not enough experience to conclude that the risks of this procedure are worth the benefits.
But, he added: “The positive hemodynamic changes that they observed in utero and after birth – reduction in flow, reduction in size of the draining vein, reversal of the abnormal reversed flow in the aorta – are really encouraging. These are some of the most exciting and surprising aspects of this case report. This is pioneering work being done in a very careful and responsible way.”
The study was funded by a grant from the Sage Schermerhorn Chair for Image-Guided Therapy.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.