”My child often had a cold since he was 4 years old, and initially he just got a shot. Then a new doctor came to the village and found a murmur in the child’s heart and suggested a checkup at a large hospital, only to learn that the child had congenital heart disease (congenital heart disease for short) and a ventricular septal defect that required urgent surgery.” The mother of 12-year-old Wang Hao (a pseudonym) said with heart palpitations. The low consultation rate of children with congenital heart disease 300,000 new cases of children with congenital heart disease are added every year in China, which is currently the first cause of death of children under 5 years old. Congenital heart disease belongs to the newborn birth defects, is the first deformity of birth defects in China. In Shanxi Province, according to the birth rate, there are currently 1500 new cases of congenital heart disease each year. If congenital heart disease is not treated with early surgery, pneumonia and heart failure will recur, which will not only affect the growth and development of the child, but also bring a heavy economic burden to society and families. On the contrary, if precocious heart disease is diagnosed and treated early, the vast majority of them do not affect normal development and the child can grow up healthily. However, due to the overwhelming fear of heart surgery, the surgery rate of children with congenital heart disease is less than 10%. And in fact congenital heart disease is not terrible, as long as early treatment, the child has the hope to walk into the ranks of healthy people. How to avoid the occurrence of congenital heart disease Even the most brilliant and caring surgeons cannot help all children with congenital heart disease, so the key is to prevent the occurrence of congenital heart disease. High-risk factors for congenital heart disease include genetic factors, chromosomal abnormalities and genetic aberrations, and about 4-5% of congenital heart disease is caused by chromosomal lesions. Another important cause is infection, especially viruses, such as rubella, mumps, influenza and coxsackie virus. The critical period of heart embryonic development is during the 2nd-8th weeks of gestation, causing congenital cardiovascular malformations also occur mainly at this stage. If the mother has a serious viral infection during the 3rd month of pregnancy, especially newborns born after rubella virus have a higher incidence of congenital heart disease. In addition, factors such as local mechanical compression around the fetus, nutritional or vitamin deficiencies of the mother can also lead to congenital heart disease. Other factors, such as highland areas, have a higher incidence of patent ductus arteriosus, suggesting that the highland environment may be a factor in the development of the disease. Other factors, such as the mother’s exposure to high doses of X-rays or use of certain drugs during pregnancy, chronic diseases, hypoxia, the mother’s advanced pregnancy, abortion to preserve the pregnancy and multiple births, are all high-risk factors for precocious heart disease. Therefore, pregnant women should pay special attention before and after pregnancy, and if they can avoid the above-mentioned high-risk factors, they can reduce the occurrence of many precocious heart diseases. What are the early signs of congenital heart disease? Congenital heart disease is characterized by high prevalence in rural areas, heavy disease and low age, and 30%-40% of complex congenital heart disease die within 1 year of age if left untreated. Having seen many children with congenital heart disease, the current medical advances have been fully able to help them become healthy, but because many parents do not know that their child has this disease, they delay their child’s timely medical attention. In addition, early diagnosis and treatment can greatly reduce infant and child mortality, and early identification of precocious heart disease is important. If your child has the following manifestations, it is important to seek medical attention promptly: Developmental disorders: Children with congenital heart disease are often developmentally backward, manifesting as thinness, malnutrition and growth retardation. Squatting: Children with cyanotic congenital heart disease, especially those with tetralogy of Fallot, often show signs of squatting after activity, which increases the vascular resistance of the body circulation, thereby reducing the right-to-left shunt produced by the septal defect, and also increases venous blood return to the right heart, thereby improving pulmonary blood flow. Pestle and toe and erythrocytosis: Cyanotic congenital heart disease is almost always associated with pestle and toe and erythrocytosis, which is the body’s physiological response to arterial hypoxia. Heart failure: most of them are usually due to a more severe heart defect in the child, which is due to congestion of the pulmonary and body circulations and reduced cardiac output. The child is pale, breathless, dyspneic and tachycardic, with a heart rate of 160-190 beats per minute, and blood pressure is often low. A galloping horse rhythm may be heard, accompanied by hepatomegaly. Pulmonary hypertension: When patients with septal defects or patent ductus arteriosus present with a syndrome of severe pulmonary hypertension and cyanosis, it is referred to as Eisenmenger’s syndrome. The clinical manifestations are cyanosis, erythrocytosis, pestle fingers (toes), and signs of right heart failure such as jugular vein anger, hepatomegaly, and peripheral tissue edema, at which point the patient has lost the opportunity for surgery and the only thing waiting is a heart-lung transplant. Most patients die before the age of 40. Other: chest pain, syncope, sudden death.