A hard-to-treat form of heart failure may be relieved by an experimental device that creates a hole inside the heart muscle, according to new clinical trial results.
The InterAtrial Shunt Device opens up and maintains an 8-millimeter (mm) hole in the wall of tissue separating the two upper chambers of the heart (the atria), said lead researcher Dr. David Kaye. He’s a senior cardiologist at Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia.
The technique appears to work, Kaye’s team reported Wednesday at the American Heart Association annual meeting, in New Orleans.
