Transarterial Coil Embolization in Two Maltese Dogs with Patent Ductus Arteriosus Using a Mini Cobra-tip Angiocatheter

Patent ductus arteiosus (PDA) is the persistent opening of ductus arterious located between pulmonary artery and descending aorta after birth. Although PDA can be occluded by surgical ligation, interventional closure of PDA using various devices is being rapidly replaced to surgical ligation, because of its non-invasive nature of treatment and minimal post-care after treatment. Main problem encountering in interventional treatment in toy breed dogs is vascular inaccessibility due to small size of artery. Although transvenous approach using jugular veins has been developed, this technique requires experienced skill to locate occlude devices into PDA and has high risk of accidental dislodgement of occluding devices (i.e. embolization coils or vascular plugs). Therefore, in this study, we developed a modified technique for coil embolization using mini-angiocatheter with trans-femoral approach in toy breed dogs (< 3.0 kg of body weight). With this modified method, we were successfully treated two toy breed (Maltese) dogs with the left to right shunted PDA.