Precautions after discharge from hospital for congenital heart disease

  1.Post-operative daily life: maintain an optimistic mental state to facilitate recovery. Eat food rich in nutrition and easy to digest, and add meat, fish, eggs, milk, vegetables, fruits, etc. Three months after surgery is an important period for recovery from heart surgery, and the amount of activity should be limited. Simple atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus or pulmonary artery stenosis can go to school and participate in lighter physical activities after 1 month. For patients with complex congenital heart disease, the postoperative recovery process should be longer, and physical activity and strenuous physical exercise should not be performed as normal. After surgery, you can take a shower, and do not take a pool bath before the wound is decabbed.  2. Postoperative incision and pain: Within 1 to 3 months after surgery, there may be pain and discomfort in and around the incision, and even inconvenient movement of the ipsilateral shoulder joint, which are mostly normal postoperative reactions and can be treated with oral painkillers or symptomatic treatment. Care should be taken not to let the child pick at the wound to reduce wound healing or infection. If there is local redness and swelling of the incision, bulging, etc., treatment should be sought from the doctor.  3. Oral medications: (1) Cardiac drugs (digoxin): In general, digoxin is not needed: If the patient’s heart function is poor, the doctor will recommend taking digoxin for a period of time when the patient is discharged from the hospital; the drug has certain toxic side effects and the dose should not be increased or decreased at will to avoid poisoning. If digoxin poisoning occurs, you should seek medical attention promptly.  (2) Drugs to reduce pulmonary artery pressure: If patients have pulmonary hypertension, they should be discharged with vasoactive drugs such as Kepone, Captopril or Yipinsu, etc. The specific time and dose of drugs will be informed in detail by the physician in charge when they are discharged.  (3) Diuretics: take the medication according to the doctor’s orders, and generally should be gradually discontinued 1 to 2 weeks after discharge.  4.Review: 3 months after the surgery of congenital heart disease, you should return to the hospital for a review to evaluate the recovery after the surgery according to the auscultation, ECG, chest X-ray and echocardiography.  5.Long-term effect: If it is simple congenital heart disease, such as atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, arteriovenous ductus arteriosus, etc., if the deformity correction is satisfactory, there are no major complications and sequelae, and the recovery is good, it is completely possible to go to school, get married and have children like normal people. For complex congenital heart disease such as single ventricle, complete endocardial cushion defect, etc. that are not completely corrected or other conditions exist, a decision should be made whether marriage, childbirth, etc. can be made according to the surgical method and condition.