As long as your doctor clears you for flying you can fly with atrial septal defect.
Check with your doctor first and have them clear you for flight before you go on an airplane when you have atrial septal defect.
Flying is allowed after two weeks in a stable person if they had a heart attack that had major complication such as heart failure.
If a person has undergone an angioplasty where a stent (wire mesh) is placed in heart arteries, then a waiting period of one week is recommended before flight travel.
The cause of atrial septal defect is thought to be from certain medications, and environmental or lifestyle factors, such as smoking or alcohol misuse, may play a role.
As a baby's heart develops during pregnancy, there are normally several openings in the wall dividing the upper chambers of the heart (atria).
These usually close during pregnancy or shortly after birth.
If one of these openings does not close, a hole is left, and it is called an atrial septal defect.
An ASD in the heart is an atrial septal defect of the heart which is a birth defect of the heart in which there is a hole in the wall (septum) that divides the upper chambers (atria) of the heart.
The hole in the heart with ASD can vary in size and may close on its own or may require surgery.
A small atrial septal defect might never cause any concern.
Small atrial septal defects often close during infancy.
Larger atrial septal defects can cause serious complications, including: Right-sided heart failure.
Open-heart repair surgery is the only way to fix primum, sinus venosus and coronary sinus atrial defects.
Sometimes, atrial septal defect repair can be done using small incisions (minimally invasive surgery) and with a robot (robot-assisted heart surgery).
Several people with ASD of the heart tolerate large unrepaired defects for 80 years or even longer without serious disability.
However, it is assumed that, as a rule, atrial septal defect reduces life expectancy, the average age at death not exceeding 50 years.
Most children who have had an ASD repair will live healthy lives.
After the repair, your child's doctor may want your child to take antibiotics.
This will prevent an infection of the heart lining (bacterial endocarditis).
With early diagnosis and repair of an ASD, children usually do very well.
In infants, small ASDs (less than 5 mm) will often not cause problems, or will close without treatment.
Larger ASDs (8 to 10 mm), often do not close and may need a procedure.
It is very possible to live with a hole in your heart, without ever realising that it's there.
A patent foramen ovale, also known as a PFO, is a hole between the left and right atria (upper chambers) of the heart that we all have when we are in the womb, but this should close shortly after we're born.
Heart failure in particular was a more frequent cause of death in the group of patients who had no ASD closure.
In both groups, 14% and 15%, respectively, 'ASD' was reported as being the cause of death.
It remains unknown to which extent this covers heart failure and pulmonary heart disease.