[Expert Hotline].
It is the wish of every parent to have their children grow up strong and healthy. However, some children are born with some congenital diseases and their health is seriously affected, and congenital heart disease (hereafter referred to as “congenital heart disease”) is one of them. It is known that there are few pediatric and adolescent patients who need surgical procedures. Today, we invited Professor Xia Jiahong, a cardiac surgeon from the Union Hospital, to talk about the prevention and treatment of pediatric and adolescent patients with congenital heart disease – Xia Jiahong, Department of Cardiac Surgery, Wuhan Union Hospital
(Standard) Don’t give up if you have a “precocious child” at home, treat it early
Writer: Correspondent Tu Xiaochen
(Small standard) Early detection of precordial disease
The abnormality of heart structure at birth is called congenital heart disease, and its severity is mainly related to the location, size and degree of the malformation.
Professor Xia Jiahong introduced that there are various kinds of congenital heart diseases, which can be summarized into two major categories, namely the non-cyanotic type with left-to-right shunt, such as ventricular septal defect and patent ductus arteriosus, and the cyanotic type with right-to-left shunt, such as tetralogy of Fallot and pulmonary stenosis.
In infancy, children with precordial disease cry less, their cries are weak, they are not easily teased or repeatedly teased before they faintly smile, their cries are low and timid, and they breathe faster and their lips are cyanotic after a long time. After growing up, children often feel exhausted, do not like to move around, love to sit or stand alone, and feel incompetent and helpless for various sports activities or labor.
This bruising phenomenon is directly proportional to the strength of the heart and the intensity of the exercise. Children with precordial disease generally develop more slowly and are significantly behind children of the same age. If a child develops these conditions, parents should take him to the hospital in time for examination.
(Small mark) “Heart” disease has serious consequences if left untreated
Heart disease is one of the most common diseases in children and adolescents, and if left untreated, it can have serious consequences.
As the body’s “engine” is out of order, the child will be weak and often sick, poor physical strength or mid-semester surgery and seriously affect learning and work. Although the child is usually asymptomatic, the doctor may find an enlarged heart or heart murmur during a physical examination, which may limit the scope of further education and employment or make the child less competitive. What’s more, as heart and blood vessel pathology progresses, children often lose the chance of full recovery or even need heart replacement and lung replacement to survive, and the medical risks and costs are greatly increased. At the same time, life-threatening accidents occur due to heart failure, respiratory insufficiency or malignant arrhythmias.
(Small mark) The danger of “heart” disease is greater in hot weather
Right now, the weather is getting hotter and hotter, in general, a healthy person’s heartbeat is about 75 beats per minute, but in a hot environment, the heartbeat can speed up or even exceed 100 beats per minute, thus increasing the workload of the heart; the temperature rises, the human subcutaneous blood vessels expand, the skin blood flow increases 3 to 5 times more than usual, and the blood flow back to the heart also increases significantly, which is bound to increase the burden on the heart and more likely to induce This will inevitably increase the burden on the heart, more likely to trigger the onset of precordial disease.
In addition to summer sweating, the body’s water evaporates through sweat, which can lead to a large loss of chlorine, sodium, potassium, calcium and other substances, causing “electrolyte disorders”, blood viscosity increases to a certain extent, blood clotting tendencies, leading to ischemia or cardiovascular blockage, and in serious cases can cause myocardial infarction and other consequences. Therefore, parents of children with preexisting heart disease should pay more attention to their children’s health in summer and seek medical attention quickly if they are unwell.
(Small mark) A few years old is curable, but a teenager is difficult to cure
Congenital heart disease may sound scary, but most patients with congenital heart disease can be cured radically, and there are no sequelae. However, the prerequisite for eradication is timely detection and early treatment, and the earlier the treatment, the better the results. “A few years old can be eradicated, a few years old is difficult to cure, and a few dozen years old is not cured.” Prof. Xia Jiahong introduced the cardiac surgery department of the Union Hospital to operate on more than 800 children with precocious heart disease each year, standing at one-third of the total patients , he pointed out that children, especially infants, are found to have precocious heart disease, many parents usually feel that the child is too small, wait a little older before receiving treatment. In fact, this understanding can delay the child, because when the affected child grows up, the organs of the body will appear cyanosis due to lack of oxygen. Once the child has developed cyanosis, the disease will be difficult to treat. Therefore, it is important to cure precocious heart disease before the patient develops cyanosis, and the earlier the treatment, the better the results.
So, how early is the most appropriate treatment? Professor Xia Jiahong introduced, precocious heart disease should generally be treated when discovered, the age before 3 years old should be considered for surgery, but severe, complex precocious heart disease in infants and children or even at birth is treated.
There are currently two options for treating precordial disease: medical interventional techniques and surgical procedures. For (very few) simple precardiac diseases, they can be cured by placing a blocker through interventional techniques, and patients can be discharged from the hospital in a day or two after surgery; for (most) complex precardiac diseases, especially, surgical procedures are required, and the success rate of these procedures is already above 98%. Therefore, most of the precardiac diseases can be cured radically.