What are the serious Congenital Heart

1. What are the serious Congenital HeartDefect? Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a general term for heart disorders in children that affect the normal way the heart works. The term “congenital” means the condition is present by birth. Many children are born with heart defects. In India, over 200,000 children are born with a congenital heart defect each year. The silver lining is that with improvements in medicine, many of these children can live well into their adulthood, provided the defect is diagnosed on time and the child receives a timely congenital heart defect treatment. The Causes In most cases, no obvious cause of congenital heart disease is identified. However, some things are known to increase the risk of the condition, which includes: •Genetic conditions: Some genetic conditions such as Down’s syndrome –a genetic disorder that affects a baby’s normal physical development and causes learning difficulties have been known to be associated with CHD. •Exposure of the mother to certain infections, such as rubella, during pregnancy •Certain types of medication taken during pregnancy •Smoking or drinking alcohol during pregnancy •Mother suffering with type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes Types of Heart Disorders in Children Most congenital heart conditions affect people from childhood through adulthood. It involves problems with the chambers of the heart, holes in the heart, abnormal connections in the heart, and abnormalities in how the heart functions.

2. There are many types of congenital heart defects. They range from simple to complex and critical. Some of the types of congenital heart defects include: •Septal Defects–where there’s a hole between 2 of the heart’s chambers (commonly referred to as a “hole in the heart”) •Coarctation of the Aorta– where the main large artery of the body, called the aorta, is narrower than normal. This is often considered as a serious defect. •Pulmonary Valve Stenosis– where the pulmonary valve, which controls the flow of blood out of the lower right chamber of the heart to the lungs, is narrower than normal •Transposition of the Great Arteries– the main arteries leading away from the heart — the aorta and the pulmonary artery — are switched (transposed). This is a critical birth defect. •Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome– where the left side of the heart is extremely underdeveloped. •Pulmonary Atresia (with intact septum)– where the valve between the heart and lungs (pulmonary valve) isn’t fully developed. Blood can’t flow from the right lower heart chamber (right ventricle) to the lungs, meaning that blood cannot flow to the lungs to pick up oxygen for the body. •Tetralogy of Fallot– a combination of four types of heart defects. This is regarded as a critical CHD. •Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Connection– in which the 4 veins that take blood from the lungs to the heart do not attach normally to the left atrium (left upper chamber of the heart). Instead, they attach to another blood vessel or the wrong part of the heart. •Tricuspid atresia–The valve isn’t formed between the two right heart chambers. In babies with this defect, blood can’t flow correctly through the heart and to the rest of the body. This is a serious CHD. •Truncus arteriosus– is a rare congenital heart defect where a single common blood vessel comes out of the heart, instead of the usual two vessels (the main Pulmonary Artery and Aorta).

3. Congenital heart disease can have a number of symptoms, particularly in babies and children, such as rapid heartbeat, swelling of the legs, extreme tiredness and fatigue, a blue tinge to the skin or lips (cyanosis), poor feeding – especially in infants, poor weight gain in infants, irritability or prolonged crying etc. These problems are sometimes noticeable soon after birth, although mild defects may not cause any problems until later in life. Timely diagnosis of CHD is critical to improve the prognosis of the child. Congenital Heart Defect Treatment Babies born with a CHD should be seen by a pediatric cardiologist and receive special care and treatment. The type of congenital heart defect treatment recommended will depend on the type of CHD that the baby has. For some children, special care may be needed throughout life. Sometimes, babies who have more than one medical problem may need additional treatments for their other medical problems. References Congenital Heart Defects – dextro-Transposition of the Great Arteries (d-TGA) | CDC Hoffman, Julien IE, and Samuel Kaplan. “The incidence of congenital heart disease.”Journal of the American college of cardiology 39.12 (2002): 1890-1900. Van Der Bom, Teun, et al. “The changing epidemiology of congenital heart disease.”Nature Reviews Cardiology 8.1 (2011): 50-60. Reference URL - https://childrenhealthcarefoundation.wordpress.com/2023/04/24/what-are-the- serious-congenital-heart-defect/