Pediatric Cardiac Surgery is a cardiac surgery done in children born with congenital heart defects. These congenital heart defects may affect the growth and overall progress of a child if not treated as the defects involve the walls of the heart, the valves of the heart, and the arteries and veins near the heart. They can intervene with the normal blood circulation through the heart. Therefore, the Pediatric heart surgeon may opt for Pediatric Cardiac Surgery for complex heart defects in children.
The symptoms of Congenital Heart Defect which may lead you to get a Pediatric Cardiac Surgery may vary from mild to severe depend on the progression and severity of the heart defect in a child. The serious signs of that you may need a Pediatric Cardiac Surgery become clear at birth or after the few weeks of a child's birth. They include:
However, less serious Congenital Heart Defect may have noticeable symptoms much later, when the child grows a little older. These symptoms may include:
The main motive of getting a Pediatric Cardiac Surgery is because of the presence of Congenital Heart Defect, whose cause is still not known by the doctor. The heart of a child starts developing in the first 6 weeks of pregnancy. The blood vessels surrounding the heart also develop during this time. It is during the formation of the heart that the heart defect can develop, and you may need a Pediatric Cardiac Surgery. owing to several risk factors like:
Heredity
Children who have one of their parents or siblings with a heart defect are more likely to born with a Congenital Heart Defect.
Mutations
There are several mutations in the DNA of the human body cells that can interfere with the formation of a healthy heart.
Other birth defects
Children born with other serious birth defects such as Down syndrome andTurner syndrome may also have to go through a Pediatric Cardiac Surgery.
Viral Infections
Pregnant women contracting rubella (German Measles) during the first three months of pregnancy possess a higher risk of having a baby born with a heart defect.
Medication
Some medications are taken by pregnant women that include elements like lithium, Accutane or anti-seizure medications also pose a threat to the child's heart formation.
Alcohol
Pregnant women indulging hard on alcohol may have their child born with syndrome like thefetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) where children may often have with their heart
Smoking
Women smoking during the initial weeks of the pregnancy contribute to the incomplete formation of the child's heart, as the heart starts to develop during the 6 initial weeks of pregnancy, hence contributing to baby taking birth with a heart defect and needing a Pediatric Cardiac Surgery.
Cocaine
Consumption of drugs like cocaine during pregnancy also contributes to a high risk of the child being born with a Congenital Heart Defect.
Maternal chronic illnesses
These may include diabetes, phenylketonuria (PKU), and Vitamin B deficiency.
Infants who have cardiac surgery have a higher chance of developing language, concentration, and cognitive delays by the age of 4 compared to children who do not undergo the procedure. Twenty-one percent of preschoolers who had heart surgery and survived were found to have hearing loss, a rate 20 times greater than that seen in the general population. For the best possible outcomes, experts advise evaluating the hearing of children undergoing cardiac surgery between 24 and 30 months.
Heart defects come in a wide variety. Some are very modest, and others that are far more severe. Heart defects may arise in the heart muscle or major arteries. Certain congenital cardiac abnormalities may need emergency surgery shortly after birth. If your child's condition is not one of them, they may be able to wait weeks, months, or even years before undergoing surgery without risk.
A single operation may be sufficient if the heart defect is small enough, while larger defects often need many surgeries. Below, we'll go over three methods for correcting cardiac problems in infants and young children born with them. When a surgeon does open heart surgery for children, they often employ a heart-lung bypass machine.
To do this procedure, the youngster is put to sleep, and a cut is made in the sternum; the child is asleep and pain-free.
The heart and lungs are bypassed in this procedure, with tubes carrying the blood to the new pump. While the heart is being repaired, the oxygenated blood is kept warm and circulating by this equipment.
When the equipment is used, the heart stops beating. The heart may be stopped so the valves and muscles can be repaired, or blood arteries around the heart can be replaced. With the damage repaired, the heart may be restarted and the equipment removed from the patient's body. When finished, the incision above the breastbone and the skin are stitched back together.
A congenital heart defect can have strong repercussions on the child's health if not treated on time. Sometimes the defects present in the heart may not require intense treatment and go with certain medications. The Pediatric Cardiac Surgery caters to treating the Congenital Heart Defect which may hamper with the child's growth, some Congenital Heart Defect may be so serious that they may require immediate Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, otherwise, it could even lead to death. The Pediatric Cardiac Surgery may consist of several surgical techniques for the Congenital Heart Defect, the major ones include:
Procedures using catheterization
In some Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, the doctor may go for catheterization techniques to treat children and adults with Congenital Heart Defect. The catheterization technique is a minimally invasive Pediatric Cardiac Surgery procedure that is carried out to repair holes, valves, and narrowed arteries in the heart. This done by inserting a thin tube-like structure called catheter, through a vein in the leg guiding the doctor towards the heart, via X-ray images. Once the catheter reaches the site of the defect, tiny tools are planted in this Pediatric Cardiac Surgery to repair the heart defect.
Open-heart surgery
Depending on your child's condition, sometimes the more opted form of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery may be an Open-heart surgery. This means the heart defect cannot be treated via a non-invasive procedure. The doctor may open the child's heart and operate on the heart defect while hinging the body to an artificial heart-lung machine.
Heart transplant
In case, both of the above mention Pediatric Cardiac Surgery treatments have failed, or can't treat the defect, a heart transplant may be opted by the pediatric cardiac surgeon as the main Pediatric Cardiac Surgery option.
The likelihood of a successful outcome during an open heart surgery for children is proportional to the severity of the lesion being repaired. Corrective operations such as closing the atrial septal defect and the ventricular septal defect have a very high success rate and a mortality rate close to zero percent.
A greater risk of 15–20% is associated with more complex lesions, such as single ventricle abnormalities, because one or both of the ventricles or valves is hypoplastic. The outcomes may vary depending on other variables.
Your child's heart surgery may take anywhere from three to six hours, but this will depend on the ailment's severity and the procedure's specifics.
The time required for a cardiac catheterization might range anywhere from two to five hours, depending on the procedures that must be performed. The time needed to recuperate might range from six hours to a whole night. Both you and your kid must arrive at the hospital prepared to spend the night there.
The survival percentage for children under the age of one who has cardiac surgery or open heart surgery for children is quite high, at 98%. Because of this, just keeping track of children's survival rates is not a good indicator of how well they are doing. It has recently been discovered that complications may be a more accurate measure of surgical and postoperative treatment quality than previous standards of care have allowed. It may be most enlightening to learn about complications that have a significant impact on the kid as a whole and the child's quality of life.
It would be best if you didn't let your kid do anything that might cause a fall or a hit to the chest for at least four weeks following surgery. Until the doctor gives the green light, your youngster shouldn't ride a bike or skateboard, go roller skating, go swimming, or participate in any contact sports. After a child's chest has been cut open, they must be cautious with their upper body movement during the first six to eight weeks.
If your kid is still a kid, they shouldn't be lifting more than 5 (2 kg). Make sure your kid is getting enough calories to recover and develop normally by carefully checking what they eat.
Babies and infants who have had cardiac surgery are often allowed to drink as much breast milk as they want. Your baby's doctor may tell you to limit breast milk intake. The recommended time between meals is 30 minutes. If your kid needs a higher-calorie formula, your doctor or nurse will explain how to do it.
Venkateshwar Hospital 
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