Timing of surgery for congenital heart disease

  Interventional treatment for congenital heart disease (congenital heart disease) is less traumatic, shorter than open-heart surgery, and significantly more tolerable and safer for children. For children who cannot close and heal on their own, early interventional treatment is possible to restore the normal cardiovascular structure as early as possible, which is more conducive to improving heart function and reducing the impact on the growth and development of the child. For children with unclosed ductus arteriosus and pulmonary stenosis aged above 6 months and weighing above 6-8 kg, for children with ventricular septal defect aged above 1-2 years and weighing above 10 kg, and for children with atrial septal defect aged above 2 years, interventional treatment can be considered to obtain radical cure.  In principle, the earlier the better. The average age for surgery in Europe and the United States is about one year old, and generally speaking, the best age is 3-6 years old in terms of the child’s ability to tolerate surgery, postoperative treatment compliance, and not affecting learning. However, the decision must be made in the context of the specific disease, the patient’s specific situation and the technical level of the hospital.  Some precordial diseases must be operated early, otherwise the opportunity to operate is lost, such as large ventricular septal defect, arteriovenous ductus arteriosus, due to a large number of left-to-right shunt, recurrent pulmonary infections in infancy with heart failure, simple drug therapy is difficult to control, often early emergence of severe pulmonary hypertension, should be operated early, generally within 1 year or even less than 6 months; some complex malformations must be operated immediately after birth or within a month, such as Complete transposition of the great arteries, otherwise it is difficult to survive.