What to do if a newborn has congenital heart disease

Heart disease is the number one killer that threatens human health, accounting for one-third of the world's deaths. Congenital heart disease is the most common type of congenital malformation. It is also relatively common in our lives, and the cost of treatment is also very high. So, what should we do if a newborn has congenital heart disease? Let’s find out through the following content!

Surgery is the main treatment method and is applicable to various simple congenital heart diseases (such as ventricular septal defect, atrial septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus, etc.) and complex congenital heart diseases (such as congenital heart disease combined with pulmonary hypertension, tetralogy of Fallot and other heart diseases with cyanosis).

Interventional therapy is a new treatment method developed in recent years. It is mainly suitable for children with patent ductus arteriosus, atrial septal defect and partial ventricular septal defect who do not have other malformations requiring surgical correction. The main difference between the two is that surgical treatment has a wider range of applications and can cure various simple and complex congenital heart diseases, but it is traumatic and takes a longer time to recover after surgery. A small number of patients may develop complications such as arrhythmia, pleural and cardiac effusion, and surgical scars may be left that affect appearance. Interventional treatment has a narrower scope of application and is more expensive, but it is non-traumatic, has a quick recovery after surgery, and leaves no surgical scars.

Compared with surgical treatment, interventional treatment of congenital heart disease has the following advantages:

1. No incision is required on the chest and back, leaving only a needle hole (about 3mm) in the groin. Because of the small trauma and little pain, the surgery will heal within a few days without leaving any scars. There is no need to open the chest cavity or cut the heart.

2. There is no need to implement systemic external circulation or deep hypothermia anesthesia during treatment. Children only need basic anesthesia without intubation to cooperate, and older children only need local anesthesia. In this way, accidents during extracorporeal circulation and anesthesia can be avoided, and the brain development of children will not be affected.

3. Since interventional treatment causes less bleeding, blood transfusion is not required, thus avoiding the adverse reactions that may be caused by blood transfusion.

Through the introduction above, I believe you already know what to do if your newborn has congenital heart disease! Congenital heart disease needs to be treated early, as heart disease can cause other complications. However, the child is too young, which poses a great risk to surgical treatment. But no matter what, timely treatment is still necessary. I hope the child can grow up healthy and happy.