Timing of surgery for congenital heart disease

  What is the timing of surgery? Experts say that in terms of general classification, congenital heart surgery is divided into closed surgery and direct cardiac surgery under extracorporeal circulation. Closed surgery is used for ligation of unclosed arterial ducts and aortic constriction angioplasty. So, is congenital heart disease curable?  Is congenital heart disease curable? Experts say that in congenital heart disease, the patient’s heart and lungs still perform their respective functions during the lateral thoracotomy. Direct heart surgery under extracorporeal circulation, also known as open heart surgery, is the most commonly used method, with a median chest incision, splitting the sternum and using an extracorporeal circulation machine to replace the heart and lung functions during surgery, stopping the heart from beating and resuming it after repair to restore the heart and lung functions. For example, septal defect repair, atrial septal defect repair, radical treatment of tetralogy of Fallot, etc. At present, there are still surgeries performed with the assistance of extracorporeal circulation machine to keep the heart still beating, such as atrial septal defect repair, which is more conducive to the recovery of myocardial trauma after surgery. In addition to procedures such as intracardiac defect repair and valvuloplasty, there are still various special procedures for complex congenital heart disease, often named after the inventor.  The optimal timing of surgery for congenital heart disease is one of the easiest and most difficult questions to answer. Generally speaking, the best time is 3-6 years old in terms of the child’s ability to adapt to surgery, to cooperate with postoperative treatment, and not to interfere with learning, but it must be decided in the context of the specific disease and the patient’s specific situation. Some congenital heart diseases must be operated early, otherwise good surgical opportunities are lost, such as large ventricular septal defect, arteriovenous ductus arteriosus, due to a large number of left-to-right shunts, repeated pulmonary infections in infancy with heart failure, which is difficult to control by simple medication, often accompanied by severe pulmonary hypertension, so the operation should be completed early, generally within l years of age, or even less than half a year.  However, for small and medium-sized ventricular septal defects within 2 years of age, if they are clinically asymptomatic, have little electrocardiogram effect, and have normal growth and development, they can wait until they are 2 years old for review before deciding to operate, because about 30-40% of membrane and muscle ventricular septal defects can close naturally with age. Although the current cardiac surgery technology and equipment, extracorporeal circulation, anesthesia level is very high, but after all, there are many complications, and even life-threatening, and the younger the age, the greater the difficulty, so the body growth and development of congenital heart disease and cardiac impact of smaller, such as atrial septal defect, small septal defect and arteriovenous ductus arteriosus is best to wait until the older age surgery is appropriate. This is the answer to the question “Is congenital heart disease curable? What is the timing of surgery?” This is the answer to the question, “Is congenital heart disease treatable?  The best age for surgery for tetralogy of Fallot is 3-6 years, but there is no age limit if an anoxic attack occurs. If the cyanosis is particularly severe and the condition of the pulmonary artery is very poor, aortopulmonary artery diversion surgery can be considered first to provide more adequate pulmonary blood flow and promote pulmonary vascular development, and then the radical surgery can be completed within 1-2 years. Experts conclude, is congenital heart disease curable? The timing of surgery plays a big role.