Corrective surgery for congenital heart disease

Congenital heart defect corrective surgery fixes or treats heart defects that a child is born with. Not everyone with congenital heart disease (CHD) needs treatment. Some may require only observation by a cardiologist; others may need surgery or a cardiac catheterisation to reduce defects of the heart disease to repair the defect. The type of surgery will depend on the specific defect.

The commonest types of congenital heart disease: a) Atrial septal defect (ASD ) , b) Ventricular septal defect ( VSD ) , c) Tetralogy of Fallot ( TOF) , d) PDA or patent ductus arteriosus , e) total anomalous pulmonary venous connection ( TAPVC ) , f) Transposition of great arteries and other rare ones.

CHD requires surgery if the defect is likely to harm the child’s long term health and well-being.The child may have frequent respiratory tract infection , poor weight gain and failure to thrive with breathlessness and in some cases , bluish discolouration of skin. The surgery may involve closing a atrial or ventricular septal defect with a patch, opening the pulmonary valve and removing the thickened musce(stenois) and placing a patch on the right ventricle and main pulmonary artery to improve blood flow to the lungs or total repair of anomalous venous connections. Some congenital heart defects are not totally correctable for which palliative surgeries are done like BT shunt ( Blalock - Taussig Shunt ) and Bidirectional Glenn shunt. These procedures help the child to grow.

Some symptoms of congenital heart disease are not noticed till adulthood. Common congenitat heart disease symptoms in adults are: irregular heart rhythms (arrhythmia), blue skin/ lips / fingernails (cyanosis), shortness of breath, feeling tired very quickly with activities, swelling of body tissue or organs (oedema). Corrective surgeries can be done for adults also.