About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffMost people with a patent foramen ovale don't need treatment. In certain circumstances, however, your doctor will recommend that you or your child have a procedure to close the patent foramen ovale.
Reasons for closure
If a patent foramen ovale is found when an echocardiogram is done for other reasons, a procedure to close the opening usually isn't performed. Procedures to close the opening in the heart may be used in the following circumstances:
- If your child is undergoing surgery to correct a congenital heart defect and your child also has a patent foramen ovale, the surgeon may close the opening when making other repairs to the heart.
- In adults having other types of heart surgery, a patent foramen ovale may be closed at the time of the operation.
- Closure of a patent foramen ovale may be done to treat low blood oxygen levels resulting from right-to-left blood flow across the patent foramen ovale.
Closure of a patent foramen ovale to prevent stroke or to treat migraines is controversial right now and is being studied in clinical trials. Closure of the patent foramen ovale is sometimes recommended for individuals with recurrent strokes when no other cause has been found.
Surgical and other procedures for closure
Procedures to close patent foramen ovale include:
- Device closure. Using cardiac catheterization, doctors can insert a device that plugs the patent foramen ovale. In this procedure, the device is on the end of a long flexible tube (catheter). The doctor inserts the device-tipped catheter into a vein in the groin and guides the device into place with the imaging assistance of an echocardiogram. Although complications are uncommon with this procedure, a tear to the heart or aorta or the development of irregular heartbeats are possible consequences.
- Surgical repair. A surgeon can close the patent foramen ovale by opening up the heart and stitching shut the flap-like opening. This can sometimes be done with the use of robotic techniques and a very small incision. Since the development of the device closure procedure, surgery isn't as commonly used. If you or your child is undergoing surgery to correct another heart problem, your doctor may recommend that you have the patent foramen ovale corrected surgically at the same time.
Stroke prevention
Medications can be used to try to reduce the risk of blood clots crossing a patent foramen ovale. However, the benefit of anti-platelet therapy such as aspirin or clopidogrel (Plavix) and other blood thinners, such as warfarin (Coumadin), in treating a patent foramen ovale isn't clear.
Clinical trials
Some professional organizations have encouraged doctors to talk to those with a patent foramen ovale about participating in clinical trials addressing the many unanswered questions about patent foramen ovale, stroke and migraine. Your doctor may suggest this option to you and provide information about trials in your area.
- Atrial septal defect (ASD). American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=11065. Accessed April 22, 2010.
- Bashore TM, et al. Heart disease. In: McPhee SJ, et al. Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment 2010. 49th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill; 2010. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=3671. Accessed April 22, 2010.
- Slottow TL, et al. Overview of the 2007 Food and Drug Administration Circulatory System Devices Panel meeting on patent foramen ovale closure devices. Circulation 2007;116:677.
- O'Gara PT, et al. Percutaneous device closure of patent foramen ovale for secondary stroke prevention: A call for completion of randomized clinical trials — A science advisory from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association and the American College of Cardiology Foundation. Circulation. 2009;119:2743.
- Johansson MC, et al. The significance of patent foramen ovale: A current review of associated conditions and treatment. International Journal of Cardiology. 2009;134:17.
- Specific cardiac defects. In: Libby P, et al. Braunwald's Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine. 8th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/book/player/book.do?method=display&type=bookPage&decorator=header&eid=4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-4106-1..50064-9--cesec197&displayedEid=4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-4106-1..50064-9--cesec222&uniq=197042004&isbn=978-1-4160-4106-1&sid=987452515. Accessed April 22, 2010.
- Sommer RJ. Patent foramen ovale: Where are we in 2009? American Journal of Therapeutics. 2009;16:562.
- Rothrock JF. Patent foramen ovale (PFO) and migraine. Headache. 2008;48:1153.
- Meier B. Catheter-based closure of the patent foramen ovale. Circulation. 2009;120:1837.
- Grogan M (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. May 3, 2010
- Rosenow E (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. May 3, 2010.
Find Mayo Clinic on