1.Do I need to split the sternum for the center incision of heart surgery? A: Yes, different types of diseases require different parts to be revealed, and different operators have different choices of surgical incisions. The median incision requires total or partial splitting of the sternum, and partial splitting is divided into splitting of the upper sternum and splitting of the lower sternum. 2.How long is the small incision in the lower sternum? A: It varies according to the condition and the size of the patient’s age and weight, generally around 3-125px, and the better condition can be 50px, and it can be prolonged appropriately if it is difficult to be revealed or operated during the operation. 3.Is there a high incidence of chicken chest in median incision? A: Not high, the possibility of chicken chest after surgery is greater than that of patients with partial sternal split, newborns or low weight children, because of the softness of the sternum, poor stability, the incidence of chicken chest after surgery is higher than the average level, and the use of chicken chest treatment instrument can reduce the incidence of chicken chest after surgery. 4.Is chicken chest treatment instrument effective? A: Effective, the treatment instrument can make the sternum remodeling, leveling and beautiful through compression, and promote the wound healing through electronic physiotherapy as well as the slow release technology of traditional Chinese medicine to prevent and soften the scar. 5.How long is it suitable to wear chicken breast treatment instrument after surgery? How long do I need to wear it? A: Under normal circumstances, it can be used after discharge from the hospital, but those with poorly healed surgical incisions or scabs protruding and not falling off are recommended to delay wearing it, and generally need to be used for 6 months, which can be adjusted appropriately according to the healing condition of the sternum. 6.What is the general location of the side incision? A: Generally in the right side of the fourth intercostal space, according to the different kinds of diseases, you can choose the left side or right side, according to the patient’s specific situation and chest radiographs, the intercostal space can also be chosen in the third intercostal space or the fifth intercostal space. 7.How long is the lateral incision? Is there a high incidence of scoliosis? The size of the incision varies according to the condition and the patient’s weight, usually around 3 to 5 centimeters, and can be reduced to around 1 centimeter for a simple congenital disease such as arterial ductus arteriosus. The incidence of scoliosis is not high. 8.What are the ways to prevent scoliosis after surgery? Because when the chest is opened sideways, the sternal retractor needs to retract the ribs, which has different effects on the thoracic rib joints and the rib-vertebral joints, and the children can usually recover by themselves due to the softness of the bones, and appropriate activities in the early postoperative period can prevent the occurrence of scoliosis. 9.How often should I change the medicine for the incision after being discharged from the hospital? If there is no redness, swelling and oozing from the incision, there is no need to change the medicine, and the dressing can be removed after three to five days. If there is redness, swelling and oozing, it is necessary to go to the hospital to change the medicine, and even need to be hospitalized in serious cases. 10.When is the right time to use the scar patch? After the scabs fall off completely, it can be used, because the permeability of the scar patch is relatively poor, if the scabs do not fall off before using, it is likely to have incision inflammation, oozing, resulting in poor healing of the incision. 11.Will the incision scar increase with the growth of the child? Under normal circumstances, the scar will increase in size as the child grows. Keloid tissue grows more slowly than normal skin tissue, but in patients with keloid scarring, the scar may grow rapidly and protrude from the skin surface. 12.Do all surgeries require blood transfusion? Not necessarily, if the patient’s weight is small, in order to avoid blood dilution, the extracorporeal circulation will usually be pre-filled with blood, but also according to the intraoperative blood loss, whether it is difficult to stop bleeding, whether there is red blood cell destruction after the operation and so on to decide whether to transfuse blood. 13.Why can’t we transfuse blood from family members? Nowadays, hospitals don’t allow whole blood transfusion, but component blood transfusion. Red blood cell transfusion is needed for anemia, plasma transfusion is needed to supplement clotting factors when there is difficulty in stopping bleeding, and platelet transfusion is needed when platelet count is reduced or function is low. ……14.How long will it take for me to go to school after the operation? Simple congenital heart disease about 7 days after surgery will be discharged from the hospital, the recovery of cardiac function is also relatively fast, you can go to school in January after surgery, complex congenital heart surgery on the child in all aspects of the impact is relatively large, it is necessary to 3 months to half a year after the operation to be better. 15.Can I take physical education classes after surgery? After the operation of simple congenital heart disease, the structure of the heart can achieve complete anatomical correction, the heart function can be completely restored to normal, and can go to sports class normally, and the complex operation should consult the attending doctor. 16.What is extracorporeal circulation? During cardiac arrest surgery, human venous blood is drained outside the body to the artificial heart-lung machine that replaces the heart and lungs for oxygenation and carbon dioxide discharge, and then it is pumped back to the body by the blood pump to maintain the peripheral circulation, and this kind of machine replaces the heart and lungs, which is called extracorporeal circulation. 17. Do all heart surgeries require extracorporeal circulation? No. Surgeries that require cardiac arrest need extracorporeal circulation, such as atrial septal defect, tetralogy of Fallot, transposition of the great arteries, etc. Surgeries that do not require cardiac arrest do not need extracorporeal circulation, such as arterial ductus arteriosus, arch constriction, and so on. 18.Why do some children have big scars and some have small scars? Is it because the surgery is not done well? The size of the postoperative scar is mainly related to the child’s body type, because the suture of the surgery is the same, and the postoperative scar of the child with keloid body will be more obvious than normal people. 19.Can small incision surgery be detected in medical examination? Generally it is not easy to find out, especially the small incision under the armpit, but we still suggest to tell the school truthfully, so that the teacher can arrange sports activities according to the specific situation of the child. 20. Why do some children have brain problems when they have heart surgery? Because there may be unpredictable problems such as air embolism, cerebral ischemia, lack of oxygen, etc. during the surgery. During the operation, small air bubbles flowing with the blood into the cerebral blood vessels will block the distal blood vessels, resulting in cerebral ischemia and causing disorders in the corresponding functional areas. 21. Will the child be completely cured after surgery for atrial septal defect and ventricular septal defect? The vast majority of cases can be cured. If there is no residual shunt, no atrioventricular block, no secondary outflow tract stenosis and other complications after surgery, the child is considered cured. 22.What materials are available to repair the defect? Autologous pericardium or polyester or bovine pericardium can be used. Autologous pericardium and bovine pericardium are more pliable and better adherent, which are less likely to cause outflow tract stenosis, but the residual shunt is less likely to heal by itself, while polyester is less pliable, but small residual shunts can heal by themselves in the long term. 23.Will there be any rejection of the artificial patch used to repair the defect? Do I have to take it out later? Autologous pericardium and polyester patch have no rejection reaction. Some patients with bovine pericardium patch may have fever, but they don’t need to take anti-rejection drugs, and they don’t need to take it out. 24.How long does it take to review after surgery? Simple congenital heart surgery in January after the review, according to the condition of the adjustment of drugs and then review once again in six months, such as all normal, then there is no need for further review. Complex heart disease need to consult the attending doctor, especially palliative surgery. 25. What are the items in the review? Chest X-ray, ultrasound, electrocardiogram, and CT or angiography according to the situation after complex surgery. Chest X-ray can observe the blood condition of the lungs and whether there is any bone deformity; ultrasound can clarify the structure of the heart; electrocardiogram can clarify whether there is any abnormality in the heart rate and rhythm. 26.How often should I check again after the test is normal? Do I need to check it more often? It is fine to check again in half a year or one year, and there is no need to check frequently. However, after palliative surgery, valvuloplasty, radical surgery for tetralogy of Fallot, and radical surgery for pulmonary artery atresia, the patients need to be rechecked once every one or two years. 27. Why do some children with heart disease have purple lips? Normal human blood is divided into venous blood (dark red and black) and arterial blood (bright red), venous blood enters the lungs through the right heart and becomes arterial blood after oxygenation, and some patients with pre-coronary heart disease have their venous blood enter the body circulation directly without oxygenation, and their lips and nail beds will appear purple. 28.Why some children do not purple after surgery and some can still be seen? Because some complex congenital heart disease can not be cured, can only do palliative surgery. Such as poor pulmonary artery development of tetralogy of Fallot, pulmonary artery atresia, left heart dysplasia syndrome and so on. 29.Why are some children with heart disease prone to colds? Atrial defect, ventricular defects and other congenital heart disease lung blood more, the lung is more susceptible to bacterial viruses. And similar to tetralogy of Fallot, pulmonary artery atresia, etc., the lungs have less blood, colds are generally less. 30. Will I not have frequent colds after the surgery? After simple radical surgery, children will be like normal children. However, different children have different physique, so the incidence of colds is also different. 31. Why is the size of the defect different between two ultrasound examinations conducted at short intervals? Has it grown or shrunk? This has something to do with the ultrasound doctor’s technique and the section made during the examination. Doing an ultrasound is just like cutting a watermelon at home, and the sections cut vertically and horizontally are not the same. 32.How many days do I need to stay in the monitoring room after the surgery? Depending on the condition, the length of stay will be different. Simple patients may not even need to stay in the monitoring room and go back to the ward directly, while serious patients may not be able to get out of the monitoring room for several months. 33. How many days can I be discharged from the hospital after surgery? Why do I need to take blood tests frequently during hospitalization? Under normal circumstances, patients are usually discharged seven days after surgery. After surgery, we should routinely monitor electrolytes, blood gases, blood tests and other blood tests, and adjust the postoperative medication according to the results of these tests in a timely manner. 34.Can I go home directly after discharge? Yes, but it is better to stay near the hospital for one or two days before going home, because there may be changes in the condition at any time after the surgery for congenital heart disease, and two days of observation outside the hospital after leaving the regular treatment in the hospital, so that you can go back to the hospital in time when there are problems. 35.What is the “bottle” on the child’s stomach after surgery? How long does it take to remove it? It is used to drain the blood and seepage fluid after the operation. If the blood and seepage fluid is not drained out of the body, it will lead to the pressure on the heart and lungs, resulting in the impairment of cardiopulmonary function. Generally, it can be removed if the drainage fluid is less than 2ml/kg in 24 hours. 36.Why does the child have fever after surgery? Postoperative bleeding and absorption of surgical wounds will have absorption of fever, in addition to the child’s weak resistance can also be combined with infection. Generally, the body temperature does not exceed 38.5 degrees, and physical cooling such as warm water scrubbing is the mainstay. 37. Is the child’s fever an infection? Not necessarily, most of the early postoperative low fever is not infection, because the normal postoperative hemorrhage, oozing blood absorption will have absorption of heat, the body’s inflammatory response, stress can also lead to increased body temperature. 38.Why is it necessary to keep track of the amount of blood in and out of the body after surgery? After congenital heart disease surgery children’s heart function and kidney function may be at a lower level, too much water intake may increase the burden on the heart and kidneys; and too little intake may affect the normal development of the child. 39.Do I need to continue to keep track of in and out volume after I go home from the hospital? Simple heart disease does not need to keep track of the amount of in and out of the hospital. Complex heart disease, surgery that has a big impact on cardiac function, should keep track of the amount of in and out of the hospital for at least one month after the operation, or weigh the child every day. 40. What is the purpose of the “wires” on the child’s stomach after surgery? Where are the wires sewn? Is it dangerous to pull them out? They are temporary pacing wires to help the heart beat when the child has a heart rhythm problem. The wires are sewn to the epicardium on the surface of the heart, so there is a risk of bleeding and pericardial tamponade when they are removed. 41. Why do some children need a pacemaker after surgery? Is it a surgical failure? First of all, it is not a surgical failure, because the heart is a very complex organ, everyone’s sinus node, inter-nodal bundle, atrioventricular node, conduction bundle location and alignment are not exactly the same, the surgery affects the above mentioned tissues, that is, the heart rate may slow down, and in serious cases, it is necessary to install a permanent pacemaker. 42.Why is there still a leak after the defect is repaired? Will the rest of the leak grow back on its own? Repairing a defect is just like patching a garment, sometimes blood may leak between the stitches, and also the residual leakage can be caused by the suture cutting the muscle tissue, if the leakage is very small, it can grow back. 43.Will the murmur disappear after the surgery? The murmur may disappear or still be audible after surgery. For example, the murmur usually disappears after atrioventricular defect surgery, but some people can hear the murmur of blood flow impacting the patch. Like tetralogy of Fallot, pulmonary artery atresia, such as part of the heart disease can be heard after surgery murmur. 44, why some children with heart disease can not hear murmurs? Heart murmur refers to the abnormal sound produced by the vibration of ventricular walls, valves or blood vessels due to the turbulence of blood in the heart or blood vessels during contraction or diastole in addition to the normal heart sound, such as Eisenmenger, corrective transposition of the great arteries without combining with other anomalies and other congenital heart disease, the blood flow does not produce turbulence, so there will be no murmur. 45. Why do some children need several surgeries? Can’t it be done all at once? According to different conditions, some children with poor development of pulmonary artery, small left ventricle or small age of the patient must do staged surgery, the first phase is mainly to train the left ventricle or promote the development of the pulmonary artery, can not be a one-stage cure. 46.When is the appropriate time to operate for atrial septal defect? Patients with small defects can be operated at around 1 year old, or wait until pre-school age. Large defects are recommended to be operated as early as possible, because pulmonary hypertension may easily occur after a long time. 47. Can sternal wires be used for chest closure? If the wire is used, do I need to take it out later? Sternum wire can be used for patients within 15 kg, but wire is usually used for palliative surgery and secondary surgery, which can be used as a marker for the second opening of the chest. Fixed wire does not need to be taken out. 48. How long do I usually have to take the medicine after discharge? Simple coronary heart disease to eat 1 month, review no problem can be discontinued when the drug, complex coronary heart disease after surgery need to consult the attending physician, cardiac function is not good children need to take a longer period of time. 49. When the heart rate is lower than how many times should Digoxin be reduced or discontinued? Different age groups and different basal heart rate, the boundaries are not the same, about one year old children with heart rate lower than 90 beats / min should be reduced, for newborns with basal heart rate of about 160, heart rate lower than 140 should be reduced. 50.Can pulmonary arterial hypertension be reduced by taking medicine? What kind of drugs are effective? Can be reduced, but the degree of decline is not the same, there is no pulmonary vascular disease of the effect is better, combined with pulmonary vascular disease or primary pulmonary hypertension decline is slow. Currently the better drugs are bosentan and sildenafil.