This is a surgical procedure in which the right atrium is connected to the pulmonary artery either directly or with a conduit, allowing for the blood to bypass an incomplete or underdeveloped right ventricle. This defect is seen in tricuspid atresia and pulmonary atresia. In this procedure, a person's diseased or abnormal aortic valve is replaced with the patient's own pulmonary valve. When developing new techniques to combat congenital cardiovascular disease, researchers must recognize the necessity for not only the treatment of the disease but also the detection and diagnosis. SPCG is a completely noninvasive technique that has been found to be effective in monitoring the integrity of native and prosthetic heart valves and shows potential to be effective in the diagnosis of different human heart diseases.
Some newer technology is under investigation.
A microwave antenna system for transcatheter ablation is under investigation. Transcatheter ablation is a nonsurgical procedure for the localized destruction of cardiac tissue involved in causing disturbances in cardiac rhythm. This technique has become the therapy of choice for a selected group of arrhythmias. This procedure is accomplished through the insertion of an electrode-catheter into a peripheral blood vessel. The electrode-catheter will then have its tip advanced into one of the cardiac chambers and will detect sites of abnormal electric activity.