Extracorporeal Life Support as a Bridge to Surgery of Acute Ventricular Septal Defect

Background  Postinfarction ventricular septal defect (VSD) is a rare but life-threatening complication of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Surgery represents the treatment of choice. But the optimal timing for surgery is still under debate. Case Description  Here, we present the case of a 70-year-old female patient with an anterior postinfarction VSD leading to cardiogenic shock for whom we used a percutaneous implantation of an extracorporeal life support (ECLS) as a bridge to surgery. After 10 days of ECLS therapy, surgical VSD repair was successfully performed. Conclusion  The strategy of delayed surgery may be a reasonable solution in selected patients with VSD complicating AMI.