What is congenital heart disease (congenital heart disease)? During pregnancy, during the first 2-3 months of pregnancy, the fetal heart and large blood vessels are formed. During this period, if the formation of the heart and large blood vessels is impaired, and thus causes local anatomical abnormalities of the heart and blood vessels, it is called congenital heart disease. Except for small ventricular septal defects that have a chance of self-healing before the age of 2, most of them need surgery. Second, what are the main manifestations of children with congenital heart disease? 1, heart failure: neonatal heart failure is considered an emergency, usually mostly due to a more severe heart defect in the child. Its clinical manifestations are 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 often low blood pressure. A galloping horse rhythm may be heard. The liver is large, but peripheral edema is less common. 2, Developmental disorders: Children with congenital heart disease often have abnormal development, manifesting as thinness, malnutrition, and growth retardation. 3 . Cyanosis: It arises from mixing of arterial and venous blood due to right-to-left shunt. It is most obvious in the tip of the nose, lips of the mouth and nail beds of the fingers (toes). 4, squatting: Children with cyanotic congenital heart disease, especially those with tetralogy of Fallot, often show signs of squatting after activity, which can increase the vascular resistance of the body circulation and thus reduce the right-to-left shunt from intracardiac defects, and also increase the venous blood flow back to the right heart, thus improving pulmonary blood flow. 5, pestle and toe and erythrocytosis: cyanotic congenital heart disease is almost always associated with pestle and toe and erythrocytosis. The mechanism of pestle finger (toe) is not known, but erythrocytosis is a physiological response to low arterial oxygenation. 6, Pulmonary hypertension: When a patient with septal defect or ductus arteriosus presents with severe pulmonary hypertension and cyanosis, the syndrome is called Eisenmenger’s syndrome. The clinical manifestations are cyanosis, erythrocytosis, pestle fingers (toes), signs of right heart failure such as jugular venous anger, hepatomegaly, peripheral tissue edema, and most patients die before the age of 40. Previously, it was thought that the patient had lost the chance of surgery at this time, and the only thing waiting was heart and lung transplantation, but with the progress of science and technology, the rapid development of cardiovascular surgery, some patients with pulmonary hypertension can be cured. 7 .Other: chest pain, syncope, sudden death. What should I do if I have congenital heart disease? In recent years, due to the improvement of diagnostic technology and the progress of cardiac surgery, most congenital heart disease can be cured or partially corrected by surgery, and the healing process is significantly improved. Therefore, after suffering from congenital heart disease, you should find a cardiac surgeon as soon as possible, through physical examination and necessary special examination means, in order to understand in detail its type, the location and severity of heart malformation, and choose the appropriate age for surgery. When is the best time for surgery? Most of the children with precardiac disease need surgery. As long as the diagnosis is clear, surgery should be performed as soon as possible. Most cases of ventricular septal defect are rarely likely to heal spontaneously and should be operated before going to school, and early surgery is recommended for more severe cases. Children with high-flow ventricular septal defects have impaired development, frequent respiratory infections, and pulmonary hypertension, and should be operated as early as possible. As for complicated cyanotic preconditioning, such as Tetralogy of Fallot and transposition of the great arteries, in principle, surgery should be performed as early as possible to correct the deformity and improve the hypoxic condition. Without surgery, the growth and development of the child will be affected, and the symptoms will get worse as the disease progresses with age. In severe cases, various complications can occur, which can be life-threatening.