What is congenital heart disease in newborns?

Congenital heart disease in newborns is a very serious topic for conversation, as this diagnosis quite reasonably causes mums fear for the life of the child. It is known that without surgery, about 70% of children under the UPU do not survive even up to a year! So, to know more about this disease is the natural desire of future parents.

Congenital heart disease: causes

The pathology of the heart begins to form, as a rule, already at the second week of pregnancy. Quite often, the cause of this is viral diseases (such as rubella, herpes, influenza, etc.), suffered by the mother, her work in harmful production, the age of the pregnant woman, uncontrolled drug intake, and alcoholism. Serious role in the formation of UPU is the heredity of the baby, gene or chromosome mutations.

Signs of congenital heart disease

One of the main signs that the newborn has a pathology of the heart muscle is the cyanosis of the mucous membranes and skin (the so-called cyanosis). The child is flabby, moody, poorly eats (he quickly gets tired at feeding), the baby has excessive sweating, and the heart rate increases.

Noises caused by pathological changes in the heart can be detected after the birth of the crumb almost immediately, but sometimes it happens only after a few months. So they, although they are one of the signs of the UPU, can not act as the main symptom.

To accurately diagnose congenital heart disease in newborns, serious examinations are required: ultrasound, X-ray and electrocardiography, and also vascular catheterization with measurement of intracavitary pressure in the heart muscle. All this is done both to determine the degree and type of pathology, and to develop an operational strategy.

Even during pregnancy, starting with the fourteenth week, with the help of ultrasound in the fetus, you can determine the presence of heart disease. In this case, depending on the severity of the condition of the newborn, the birth is conducted in a special way, and the operation is done immediately after it is born.

How is severe congenital heart disease in newborns treated?

To treat a severe degree of CHD only operational methods are used. And the earlier this intervention was carried out, the more likely the newborn is to recover.

Perform such operations, as a rule, on the open heart, using the device of artificial circulation. And in recent years, endoscopic operations have become more frequent , in which a catheter is inserted through the vein of the baby and is brought to the heart under X-ray control, where surgery is performed with special thin instruments.

In especially severe cases of CHD, the operation can be performed in several stages: first, the baby's condition is facilitated, and the pathology itself is eliminated with the next surgical intervention.

If the child has vices that are not treatable, then he is shown a heart transplant.

Does congenital heart disease in newborns always require surgery?

There are also such changes in the heart, which with age pass by themselves. These include small defects in the interventricular septum. They eventually close spontaneously and do not require surgical intervention. In such cases it is enough to observe the doctor, frequent walks in the open air, tempering and protecting the child from infections.