Q: What is congenital heart disease (congenital heart disease)?
A: Structural abnormalities of the heart and large blood vessels that exist before birth due to genetics, gene expression, viral infection, drugs, radiation, etc. are called congenital cardiovascular disease (or congenital heart disease, or congenital heart disease). Congenital heart disease is present at birth, but not always detected, and can be divided into two main categories: cyanotic and non-cyanotic congenital heart disease.
Cyanotic precardiac disease is easily detected, while non-cyanotic precardiac disease is not easily detected in the early stages, and is often discovered during physical examinations or visits to other diseases. There are three common types of precardiac disease: atrial septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus, and ventricular septal defect (all of which are non-cyanotic).
Q: Do atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, and patent ductus arteriosus account for a large percentage of congenital heart disease?
The total incidence of congenital heart disease is about 7 to 8 per 1,000 in normal people, and our epidemiological survey shows that the incidence of neonatal congenital is 150,000/year, and the above three diseases account for 70% of congenital heart disease.
Q: How can early and timely detection and diagnosis of congenital heart disease be achieved?
A: Many congenital heart diseases are asymptomatic at the earliest and are less likely to be detected, but are discovered during physical examinations or when looking at other diseases due to heart murmurs. In the above mentioned congenital heart disease, the most important symptom is susceptibility to colds and pneumonia, if not diagnosed clearly and operated early, irreversible pulmonary hypertension will be formed, thus losing the opportunity of surgical treatment. In conclusion, it is best to make a clear diagnosis of precocious heart disease at the neonatal stage so that the best time for surgery can be determined as early as possible.
If precocious heart disease is suspected, it is important to choose a regular hospital of a certain standard to make an accurate diagnosis by a professional doctor. Through cardiac ultrasound, and by a doctor with a professional level of ultrasound, ultrasound is the easiest, most direct, basic and valuable method to confirm the diagnosis of congenital heart disease, which can be determined in 5 to 10 minutes.
Q: Is congenital heart disease scary? Do all congenital heart diseases require immediate surgery?
A: Congenital heart disease is actually not terrible, what is terrible is not found in time, not treated at the best time, so that the development of late stage caused by severe pulmonary hypertension, may lose all treatment opportunities, so to speak, if early examination, early detection, timely treatment, can be completely restored to normal, the growth and development of children are not affected.
Heart disease has its best time for treatment, generally the best treatment age range is 3-5 years old, once lost this time may be a lifelong regret, some although the surgery, but because of missed the best period of early treatment, affecting the growth and development of children and even life. The rapid development of cardiac surgery and medical interventional techniques has made it possible to perform surgery for precocious heart disease entirely from the point of view of the disease, without special consideration for the age of the child.
Parents of children should go to a cardiovascular hospital as soon as possible under safe and guaranteed conditions for diagnosis and treatment by a cardiac surgeon to avoid missing the best time for surgery. In some cases, interventional blocking is all that is needed to cure the disease. But each condition should be analyzed specifically, individual differences, should listen to the advice of experts, because the development of the condition of precardiac disease to a certain extent can lead to pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary hypertension may lose the opportunity to treat, if it is severe pulmonary hypertension, then lost the opportunity to treat, the lesion is very serious, even the conditions of extracardiac surgery are lost, very unfortunate.
Therefore, in principle, the key to all precordial diseases is early detection and early treatment under safe and guaranteed conditions as soon as possible in a specialized cardiovascular hospital by a very skilled specialist in surgery.
Q: What is the procedure of interventional blocking of precardiac disease, is it painful? Does it take a long time?
A: congenital heart disease interventional blocking is a new treatment method, for most patients is a blessing, as if with a special tiny umbrella through the catheter into the blood vessels to the heart gap, the doctor in vitro manipulation, the small umbrella slowly opened, sealed the gap, only a little pain when playing anesthesia, almost no feeling, very short time, the incision is only 3-4 mm so little, 2-3 days can be Discharge from the hospital.
Its superiority is that it avoids the trauma and danger of open-heart surgery, the patient suffers little pain, the recovery time is short, the complications are few, the efficacy is reliable, and it has the incomparable advantages of surgery. However, many patients have little knowledge about this treatment method and have concerns that the treatment is not complete, including doctors who are not specialized in this field also have insufficient knowledge about it. In fact, once this treatment is successful, it should be lifelong and does not require a second treatment. Of course, this must be done by a specialized doctor with considerable experience.
Q: Which precordial diseases are suitable for interventional treatment?
Currently, most atrial septal defects, ventricular septal defects, patent ductus arteriosus, and pulmonary valve stenosis can be completely cured by interventional treatment, and the children can live, study, and work as normal after surgery. The success rate of interventional treatment has reached 95% to 100%.
Q: What are the advantages of interventional treatment for precordial disease?
Traditional open-heart surgery for precordial disease requires three hurdles: general anesthesia, open-heart surgery and postoperative recovery, and leaves lifelong scars. Compared with this, the advantages of interventional treatment are.
(1) Small trauma: No incision is needed on the back of the chest, only a 2 to 3 mm incision in the groin (usually no scarring). There is no need to open the chest cavity and pericardium, and there is no need to cut the heart, so there is almost no damage to the heart;
(2) No need for general anesthesia: only local anesthesia in the groin is required, avoiding the risk of general anesthesia.
(2) No general anesthesia: only local anesthesia in the groin, avoiding the accident of general anesthesia and the toxic side effects of general anesthesia on the brain, liver, kidneys and other organs, especially avoiding the influence of anesthetic drugs on the intellectual development of children’s brains;
(3) No need for blood transfusion: because of the low bleeding of interventional treatment, no blood transfusion is needed, which avoids infectious diseases that may be caused by blood transfusion, such as hepatitis and AIDS;
(4) Short procedure: the interventional procedure is short, for example, it takes only about 30 minutes to seal an atrial septal defect, and the child can get up and move around 6 to 12 hours after the procedure, and can be discharged from the hospital in 3 to 5 days;
(5) No rejection: Since the blocking devices currently used are made of nickel-titanium memory alloy, they are non-antigenic and do not produce rejection in the child’s body.
Q: Which conditions are not suitable for this procedure?
(1) The following children with atrial septal defect are not suitable for interventional treatment.
Concurrent cardiac malformations requiring surgery; pulmonary venous malformation drainage; severe pulmonary hypertension – with bidirectional shunts; with atrial fibrillation (a type of heart rate arrhythmia).
(2) The following children with ventricular septal defect are not suitable for intervention: the vessel is too thin and the delivery sheath is difficult to insert; the anatomical position of the defect is poor and the function of the aortic valve may be affected after placement of the blocker.
(3) The following children with patent ductus arteriosus should not receive intervention: several coexisting cardiac defects or malformations; children weighing less than 4 kg.
Q: Will the occluder come out during subsequent exercise after it is inserted into the heart? How long will the blocker last? Will it come off as the heart grows older?
During the procedure, a push-pull test is done when the blocker is released. The heart ultrasound test is performed to observe that the umbrella has been well hung in the left and right atria and the push-pull is performed.
The blocker is made of memory alloy and becomes the core when it is placed in the heart. The outside fibrous tissue, blood tissues, and fibrin are tightly attached to the blocker and covered by the outside tissue. The lifespan of a pacemaker is 7-8 years, while a blocker can be used for life.