septal artery occlusion

  My mother suffered from a right brain stroke two months back.
  She has had history of hypertension. She has been undergoing
  physio-therapy 4 days/week and seemed to responding well - she is even able
  to walk a few steps with some support. She has had some chest congestion
  since the treatment started and has had breathing trouble lately.
  Now the cardiologist is recommending a procedure known as
  "Septal Artery occlusion with alcohol" as it appears that the heart
  muscles have thickened.
  I would appreciate any information on this procedure. Sorry if I have
  supplied a lot of unnecessary information.
  thanks!

[CCF CARDIO MD APS]

_
Dear Srikant,
Septal artery alcohol ablation is still considered an experimental procedure, however for all those patients who are not candidates for surgical (open heart surgery) correction, this procedure is their only hope when they do not get better with medicines.  
In simple or layman's terms, septal ablation is a controlled infarction (MI or heart attack) aimed only at the septal wall that is bulging into the outflow tract of the heart(and thereby obstructing outflow of blood). One of the three main coronary arteries (the left anterior descending) has little branches off of it called the septal perforators which supply blood, oxygen, and other nutrients to the septal wall.
So by putting alcohol selectively down one or two of the septal artery branches, you selectively infarct(kill) the tissue fed by those branches; since infarcted (dead) tissue shrinks and scars, you have essentially minimized the obstruction caused by the bulging tissue. Of course the procedure does not completely eliminate the obstruction, however it does minimize such that the patient's symptoms are lessened (reduced shortness of breath and minimal to no congestion).
I hope this information is useful. Information provided in the heart forum is for
general purposes only.  Only your physician can provided specific diagnoses and therapies.
Feel free to write back with further questions. Good luck!
If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please
call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at
www.ccf.org/heartcenter. The Heart Center website contains a directory of the
cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your
cardiac problem.