Balloon Atrial Septostomy

Balloon atrial septostomy was first described by William J. Rashkind in 1966 as a technique that could create an atrial septal defect to patients with transposition of great arteries (TGA) in the catheterization lab. This technique gained immediate acceptance in the pediatric cardiology community as it was giving hope for survival to the many infants who were born with TGA and had a small or restrictive interatrial septal communication. These babies usually did not manage to survive and reach the age of the 6 months to undergo the so-called atrial switch operation for TGA, which was already established at that time (first described in 1959 by Senning; modified in 1963 by Mustard).