Another Type Of Congenital Heart Disease May Be Cured By The Device And The Surgery

Another Type Of Congenital Heart Disease May Be Cured By The Device And The Surgery.
A congenital verve escape that was typically ruinous three decades ago is no longer so deadly, thanks to new technologies and surgical techniques that appropriate babies to survive well into adulthood, researchers report. A study in the May 27 emerge of the New England Journal of Medicine compares the effectiveness of older and newer versions of devices aimed at fixing incompletely formed hearts. The haunt finds both performing equally well over three years.

It's a "landmark" study, "one that we've never had before in congenital resolution disease," said Dr Gail D Pearson, governor of the Adult and Pediatric Cardiac Research Program at the US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which financed the effort. The study, which compared two devices for keeping oxygen-carrying blood flowing in 549 children born with hearts incapable of doing it alone, has not yet produced exhaustive results favoring one ploy over the other.

But the study is in effect just beginning. "Continuing follow-up will help us sort out the near- and long-term results". Study maker Dr Richard G Ohye, head of the University of Michigan pediatric cardiovascular surgery division, agreed. "Well be able to follow them to adulthood, and they will train us about the best way to function them". The children in the study were born with hearts that had a nonfunctioning - or nonexistent - Heraldry sinister ventricle, the chamber that pumps blood to the body. About 1000 such children are born in the United States each year, one in 5000.

Classically, they were certain for quick death. But about 30 years ago, Dr William Norwood of the Boston Children's Hospital developed a system in which a shunt is implanted so that blood can rise from the heart to the lungs, where it picks up enough oxygen to sustain life. That Norwood procedure, as it is called, is followed by a half a mo operation at 4 to 6 months and a third at 18 to 36 months. If all else fails, a sensitivity transplant can be done.

The new study tested the older shunt, which connects the aorta, the vital heart artery, to the lungs pulmonary artery, with a newer ideal that goes from the heart's right ventricle to the pulmonary artery. The newer shunt provides better results in the cardinal 1 year - 74 percent survival without a goodness transplant, compared to 64 percent with the older model. But there are more complications with the newer model, and the results are about the same with both shunts after 33 months of use, according to antecedent data.

So, the story continues. "We're continuing to follow these children until they are at least 6 and in all probability longer. We'll be learning a lot more information over time". Even without functioning hand ventricles, "many of these individuals live well into adulthood, including stomach age. Some can live what we think of as normal lives, participating in sports. Others may have more problems. Many have near-normal make nervous tolerance and do most of the things children do".

But they do remain at risk of neurological problems, "because of the things they go through and innate issues". For that reason, the neurological development of the children in the deliberate over is being monitored and a report on their mental progress will be issued in time. Whatever the results, "we have ushered in a uncharted era helpful resources. This is the first randomized trial in congenital heart surgery".