Posted by Justin Kuykendall on June 11, 2004 at 04:17:06:
In Reply to: Re: PVA or Maze posted by Sarah on November 22, 2003 at 16:15:41:
My father, a 55 year-old male, had cardiac ablation for his atrial
fib; unfortunately, we did not know about the side effect of pulmonary
vein stenosis.A few months after the second aggressive ablation he began to develop
pneumonia-like symptoms and got worse and worse. We later
discovered he had severe pulmonary vein stenosis My dad had open-
heart to do a pulmonary vein patch using the paricardium. This
worked for about 2 months, but the veins began re-stenosing; they
then sent him to UCLA medical center where they put in 4 stents in 3
veins and ballooned the 4th. These lasted for 6 months but the stents
were not drug-eluting and began to close off again and his health was
deteriorating. They re-ballooned the stents to open them up, but
didn't want to re-stent because they felt that if they were not drug
eluting the would only close off again.We are desperately looking for information on drug-eluting stents for
the pulmonary veins. If you have any information on stents that are
big enough for the pulmonary veins, we would greatly appreciate your
help. Also, if you or anyone you know has successfully dealt with
pulmonary vein stenosis, please advise.Thank you for your help.