Congenital Heart Defect and A Child’s Heart Surgery

It is possible that your kid has a congenital heart defect with no long-term or catastrophic effect on his or her health. However, the numbers favour the chances where it becomes necessary to involve a child’s heart surgery among other treatments.

The situation, health of a patient and their capability to handle the aftermath of a procedure as complex as surgeries is what decides how, when, or if one is needed.

Why Surgery?

The treatment options for congenital heart diseases involve catheterization, heart surgery, transplant, medication based care, or a combination of any of the above-stated ones.

Pediatric heart surgery procedures, or the surgeries for adults too, are suggested only when catheterization or medicine alone are deemed not good enough to deal with the defect.

What Would They Do to Your Baby In A Surgery?

Depending on how far and wide the defect has gone, surgery could do many things.

It could patch up the blood vessels that don’t close properly. It could stitch a hole, widen an artery, repair a leakage, replace a defective valve, or correct the position of the pulmonary arteries or the aorta.

In the simple sense of this picture, a heart surgery for CHD is used to deal with what other processes have proved unable to fix.

What Is the Perfect Time to Go for Your Child’s Heart Surgery?

Never and always.

It is beyond words what a parent feels, looking at their kid rolled up in an operation theatre, about to have a dangerous procedure performed on them, irrespective of age. However life-threatening the defect be, in the cases of congenital heart conditions, scheduling the surgery is out of your hands.

It is a process that requires consideration in many aspects. It might be needed right away, after a few months, or after a few years.

For certain specific defects, the best age of getting a surgery remains between two to four years. For certain other ones, this time specification is strictly below two years. There are other cases where it is safer to wait for a child to get older, for healing purposes mostly.

What Happens After Your Child’s Heart Surgery Is Over?

After you have somewhat settled the doubts on pediatric open heart surgery, recovery becomes the primary matter of doubt. It is better to have this resolved before the procedure is performed.

The recovery time for a kid depends on how invasive the procedure is. Surgeries are mostly invasive, specifically in the complicated cases. Expect anywhere between three to eight weeks of extensive care and rest at home after the discharge.

There will be post-operation pains, often controllable by medicine. The child's behaviour might change. They can feel scared or irritable at times. Activities will focus on a bare minimum level. There'll be a strict diet to follow, wound care to keep from infectious, and regular follow-up.

There Is No ‘One Surgery, One Cure’ Rule

Today, for an infant’s open heart surgery, survival rates have improved significantly. However, it is possible for the child to develop symptoms later on. It is also possible that after-surgery complications show up and another surgery is needed.

With a congenital heart disease, in cases where it comes to a child’s heart surgery, it is seldom as simple as getting everything under control in one effort. However, modern medicine has brought us to a point where the flame of hope burns brighter than it did a few years back.