Congenital heart disease can be cured without surgery

  Congenital heart disease is the most common type of congenital malformation, referring to abnormalities in the structure or function of the heart that exist at birth. In milder cases, the malformation is asymptomatic and is often detected during hospital visits due to pneumonia or other illnesses; in severe cases, there may be dyspnea, cyanosis and syncope after activity, and growth retardation in older children. Some children with particularly complicated, severe, cyanotic precordial disease die at birth or soon after birth. For a long time, the general public knows little about precordial disease and has many misconceptions. In fact, with the development of medicine, precordial disease is not an incurable disease, and for many patients with precordial disease, it can be cured without surgery. This article will briefly introduce the incidence, etiology and interventional treatment of precardiac disease in China.  There is no large-scale accurate epidemiological information on precocious heart disease at home and abroad, but the overall incidence is on the rise. It is estimated that there are about 900,000 adult patients with precocious heart disease in the United States, and the number is even higher in China, with about 150,000 newborns suffering from precocious heart disease and possibly as many as 4 million adults with precocious heart disease each year nationwide. It brings distress and misfortune to many families. Therefore, the publicity and education of scientific knowledge should be carried out to reduce the incidence of congenital heart disease to improve the cure rate. It is generally believed that the occurrence of congenital cardiovascular malformations is the result of a combination of environmental and genetic factors. During the 2-3 months of pregnancy, which is the most active period of fetal cardiovascular development and evolution, if a pregnant woman is infected with a virus (such as rubella virus, coxsackie virus, etc.) during this period, it can significantly increase the risk of fetal cardiovascular malformations —- 14 times higher than the general population. Premature babies and those with a birth weight of less than 2500 grams are susceptible to precocious heart disease. In plateau areas such as Qinghai and Tibet in China, there are more arteriovenous ductus arteriosus and atrial septal defects than in plain areas. Genetic factors (genetic abnormalities) are also an important cause of precocious heart disease. In addition, high maternal age (over 35 years old), consanguineous marriage, smoking of pregnant women, smoking of husbands, alcohol consumption, taking certain drugs during pregnancy, diabetes, lupus and exposure to radiation during pregnancy can lead to fetal cardiovascular malformations.  There are two types of treatment for congenital heart disease: surgical treatment and interventional treatment. In the past, open-heart surgery was the main treatment modality, but with the development of cardiac catheterization technology and interventional devices, interventional treatment is a new treatment method developed in recent years, which is mainly applied to patients with congenital heart disease such as arteriovenous ductus arteriosus, atrial septal defect and myocardial and perimembranous ventricular septal defects. The main difference between the two is that surgical open-heart surgery has a wider scope of application and can cure various simple and complex congenital heart diseases, but it is traumatic and has a long postoperative recovery time, and a few patients may have complications such as arrhythmia, chest cavity and cardiac effusion, and also leaves surgical scars that affect the aesthetics. In contrast, interventional treatment is non-invasive, with quick recovery, short hospital stay, low cost and no surgical scars.  During the treatment, the doctor punctures the patient’s blood vessel (usually the femoral vein, a blood vessel at the root of the thigh) and delivers a suitable-sized blocker to the lesion to seal the defective or unclosed arterial catheter under the guidance of a digital subtractor through a specially designed sheath, which can achieve the purpose of healing. In recent years, a large number of clinical practices have confirmed that interventional occlusion of precordial disease has the advantages of small trauma, no surgical scars, short operation time (about 1 hour), quick recovery (can get out of bed the next day), short hospitalization period (about 1 week), no special anesthesia and extracorporeal circulation, and few complications. General anesthesia is only needed if the patient is young and cannot cooperate with the procedure. Therefore, more and more patients are choosing interventional treatment.