New triple-lumen balloon catheter for percutaneous (pulmonary) valvuloplasty.

Percutaneous transluminal balloon pulmonary valvuloplasty has been performed since 1982. In publications, the most critical problems mentioned are severe systemic hypotension and bradycardia due to stasis of blood flow. A triple-lumen balloon was developed to allow more rapid inflation and deflation and to preserve the preexistent forward blood flow during maximal inflation. Only a slight systemic hypotension and no bradycardia were seen in the first two patients with pulmonary valve stenosis treated with this type of balloon. Thus, the maximal inflation time is not a critical parameter, whereas with the former types of balloon, maximal inflation times were critical, and, if longer than 5 to 10 sec, severe systemic hypotension was registered. We conclude that the triple-lumen pulmonary valve-dilatation balloon catheter is superior to the single-lumen balloon catheter used up to now.