Tiny Patient Benefits From Breakthrough Treatment
Veterinary Medical Center cardiologists treat smallest dog ever for PDA defect
By Sue Kirchoff On October 4, David Jenkins and Gizmo, his three-pound Yorkshire terrier-mix puppy, made a 24-hour drive from their home in Pensacola, Florida, to the University of Minnesota Veterinary Medical Center (VMC). They were on a life-saving mission: Gizmo suffered from patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), the most common congenital cardiovascular defect of dogs, which leaves an opening between the pulmonary artery and the aorta. Without the procedure offered in a clinical trial at the VMC, the 6-month-old dog would likely die of heart failure within a year. The two-and-a-half-hour procedure was performed by Dr. Janet Olson, Dr. Anthony Tobias, and the Cardiology Service team on October 6, and an energetic Gizmo was released the next day—a quick, pain-free recovery that would not have been possible if she had undergone an invasive, “open-chest” procedure. Instead, Gizmo went home with just a few sutures in her upper hind leg and a life-saving device fully occluding her PDA. | 
Dr. Janet Olson examines Gizmo the day after surgery.
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The procedure involved the insertion of an investigational low-profile duct occluder introduced through a specially designed, extremely thin catheter. Inserted in the femoral artery in Gizmo’s leg, the catheter was advanced along the aorta to the PDA, where the occluder was deployed. The occluder acted as a plug, blocking the opening between the pulmonary artery and the aorta. In about three months, it will become part of the rest of her cardiovascular system, and Gizmo will have a normal, healthy life. This minimally invasive procedure for PDA occlusion was researched and developed by the VMC Cardiology Service in collaboration with a medical device company. It has been successfully performed in more than 40 dogs at the VMC, and has rapidly become the method of choice for PDA occlusion in dogs worldwide. But it has never been performed in any dog as small as Gizmo. “In the past, we were limited in terms of the size of the dog we could treat because the delivery catheters needed for the device would only fit dogs weighing more than 6.6 pounds,” explains Olson. “But PDA is common in very small dogs, so we really needed a smaller device and delivery catheter.” Tobias, Olson, their colleague Dr. Christopher Stauthammer, and cardiology technician Kristin Hohnadel are currently conducting a clinical trial to design and investigate a new, smaller device and delivery catheter, and a novel deployment procedure for PDA occlusion in small dogs weighing less than 3 killograms (6.6 pounds). So far, they have performed the procedure in Gizmo and one other small dog, and it has been a complete success in both. Additional dogs with PDA weighing 1.5-3.0 kilograms (3.3-6.6 pounds) are being sought to participate in this clinical trial at no charge. For more information, visit www.cvm.umn.edu/cic/current/cardiology. See the KARE 11 story about Veterinary Medical Center doctors fixing tiny terrier's "broken heart"
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