Cardiac septal defects: Treatment via the Amplatzer® family of devices

The majority of patients with congenital heart disease present with defects comprised of vascular narrowing or absence (such as interruption or coarctation of the aorta or pulmonary arteries) or failure of structures to fuse or separate during development (total anomalous pulmonary venous connection, septal defects, fusion of valve cusps). Correction of these defects began with open-heart surgery but, more recently, many such repairs can be performed transvenously using catheter-delivered closure devices (e.g., Amplatzer closure devices). This chapter will review a brief history of such repairs and provide information on the design and animal testing of such systems.