May 27, 2010

New shunt increases chance of survival for infants undergoing cardiac surgery

Almost 1 percent of infants are born with congenital heart disease, which leads to abnormally formed hearts. The heart needs two ventricles to function: one to pump blood to the lungs, and one to pump to the body. In the most severe defects, babies are only born with one of the two ventricles, leading to many complications and often death.

The condition requires mutliple surgeries to correct. Cardiac surgery often leaves scars, which parents can diminish with silicone gel sheeting. The first surgery, called the Norwood procedure, is the most dangerous. It involves placing a shunt on the defective ventricle to pump blood to the rest of the body.

Traditionally, the shunt used is an modified Blalock-Taussig (MBT) shunt. A new study looked at this shunt's performance against the newer right-ventricle-to-pulmonary-artery shunt (RVPA), and found that the RVPA shunt increased the chance of survival without a heart transplant by ten percent after one year.

The study found that after two years, infants usually responded about the same no matter which shunt was used. But the RVPA shunt seems to be the key to surviving the first year.

Infants who survive the procedure will likely be left with a scar where the incision was made. Scars are permanent, but when the children grow up, they can mask these scars with silicone-based scar treatment products should they choose to.ADNFCR-3015-ID-19805611-ADNFCR

 

Biodermis RSS Site Feed