Atrial septal defect is a common congenital heart disease. Residual ventricular dysfunction is one of the late complications after the closure of the atrial septal defect.

Assessment of right ventricular function in patients who have undergone atrial septal defect closure either surgically or percutaneously.

A descriptive and comparative study of the systolic and diastolic function of the right ventricle(RV) of the 53 patients who underwent an atrial septal defect closure either surgically or percutaneously in the cardiology department of the Sahloul Hospital from May 03, 2000 to May 30, 2016. The assessment of the systolic function of the RV is done by measuring the fractional length shortening of the RV in two-dimensional mode, the tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) in the time-motion mode and the DTI-derived tricuspid lateral annular systolic velocity wave (S). The assessment of the of the diastolic function of the RV is done by measuring of the tricuspid flow in continuous wave Doppler and pulsed wave Doppler.

The echocardiographic study found a decrease in the dilation of the right cavities more pronounced in the percutaneous group (15% versus 34% in respectively percutaneous and surgical group). The Longitudinal systolic function assessed by TAPSE (21±4mm versus 16±3mm, in 91.5% and 45.5% of the percutaneous and surgical group, the tricuspid S wave (12.67±2cm/s versus 10±1.8cm/s in 91.4% and 60.6% in respectively the percutaneous and surgical group) and the fractional length shortening (45.23±8.35% vs. 45.6±5.6%, in 93.6% and 94% in respectively the percutaneous and surgical group). No significant difference on the diastolic function of the RV between the two groups.

Surgery has an important impact on the longitudinal systolic function of RV and the percutaneous closure has the advantage of preserving right ventricular function.