Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome

2. The defect in Caleb’s heart allows blood to mix between the two ventricular chambers. Due to this defect would you expect the blood to move from left-to-right ventricle or right-to-left ventricle during systole? Explain your answer based on blood pressure and resistance in the heart and great vessels. It goes left to right during systole. The difference is normally, oxygen-poor (blue) blood returns to the right atrium from the body, travels to the right ventricle, and then is pumped into the lungs where it receives oxygen. Oxygen-rich (red) blood returns to the left atrium from the lungs, passes into the left ventricle, and then is pumped out to the body through the aorta. But when an infant has ventricular septal defect it still allows oxygen-rich (red) blood to pass from the left ventricle, through the opening in the septum, and then mix with oxygen-poor (blue) blood in the right ventricle. (ROCHESTER.EDU) but instead when systole occurs the blood gets mixed because of the septum therefore heart needs to pump harder to ensure that enough blood with oxygen reaches the body.

One of the most common surgeries performed on babies is called Esophageal Atresia/Tracheoesophageal Fistula. That is just the medical term for when a baby is born with a defect in their esophagus and trachea and needs to have it repaired. About 90% of babies are born with this condition. It occurs in 1 in 3,000 to 5,000 newborns. The good thing is that since it happens so frequently, the survival rate is almost 100%. The most rarest condition is ectopia cordis. That is when a baby is born with their heart outside of their chest. Ectopia Cordis occurs 8 per one million live births. The survival rate is very low. 90% of the babies are either stillborn or pass away within the first week of being out of the womb.

Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome is a very serious birth defect. Studies say, “each year approximately… 640 to 1440 infants in the United States are born with HLHS” (Paediatr Child Health,2). Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, also known as HLHS, is a birth defect where the left ventricle of the heart is either underdeveloped or absent. Today, there are heart surgeries that can help children born with HLHS survive longer and sometimes even live long, happy lives. Though, not all children survive HLHS. Many infants die whilst waiting for a donor heart.

Study population. Four hundred and thirty-eight fetal echocardiograms for TTTS were performed within this institution during the time frame for this study. Of these, forty-four patients who received surgical intervention with adequate echocardiographic information before and after SFLP were included in the review. The mean gestational age for examination was 21.0 ± 2.5 weeks. Quintero staging in the 44 study subjects was: Stage 1, n = 1; Stage 3, n = 38; Stage 4, n = 5. Using the Cincinnati staging system, 32 were classified 3C, 6 stage 3B, 1 Stage 3A, and 5 stage 4. Data for recipient and donor twin fetal weights and deepest vertical pockets are presented in Table 1. Fetal echocardiograms were analyzed in both donors and recipients before and after (mean 4.7 ± 1.8 days) SFLP. The mean interval between initial and the post-SFLP fetal

As previously mentioned, the left ventricle is no longer as compliant and therefore cannot fill with blood without encountering resistance. The use of diuretics decreases overall volume, which as a result decreases overall pressure. This lost pressure may be needed in order for blood to pump with added pressure against the resistance into the ventricle. Once pressure is lost the patient is said to have hypotension and is at risk for blood not being able to perfuse to vital tissues (Burchum et al., 2016, pg.

With left-sided heart failure a patient can suffer from fluid in the lungs, shortness of breath and pulmonary edema, and fatigue. Since the heart can not pump the adequate amount of blood to the rest of the body, there is a lack of oxygen in the body and this results in fatigue. Left-sided heart failure causes an increase in pressure within the vessels in the lungs, which can lead to an accumulation of fluid within the lungs, which leads to shortness of breath and pulmonary edema. There is a wide variety of causes of left-sided heart failure with include consuming too much alcohol, suffering from a heart attack, infections of the heart muscle, increased blood pressure, hypothyroidism, narrow heart valves, and any disease that can cause damage to the heart muscle. Left-sided heart failure in children is often caused by birth defects including abnormal

HLHS is when the left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped. In hypoplastic left heart syndrome, the left side of the heart can 't properly supply blood to the body because the lower left chamber (left ventricle) is too small or in some cases it may not even exist. In addition, the valves on the left side of the heart (aortic valve and mitral valve) don 't work properly, and the main artery leaving the heart (aorta) is smaller than normal. The foramen ovale is a natural opening between the upper chambers of the heart (atria) or through a blood vessel that connects the pulmonary artery directly to the aorta (ductus arteriosus) and for the first several days of life, the right side of the heart can pump blood to both the lungs and the rest of the body through this. Often babies with HLHS undergo a three-staged set of complex surgeries in which the outcome is usually leaving the child with half a heart. In doing this, it increases the child’s chances of survival. The foramen ovale usually closes after the first day or two of life then the right side of the heart has no way to pump blood out to the body.

Pharmacological treatments with diuretics, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers or aldosterone antagonist, and beta-blockers are essential for the treatment of heart failure and are effective in improving symptoms of heart failure and patient well-being. Diuretics are administered to help get rid of the excess fluid that helps improve breathing associated with shortness of breath, at rest or on exertion. Diuretics provide relief from symptoms and signs of pulmonary and venous congestion by promotion of fluid loss through the kidneys. Diuretics, for example, Furosemide helps improve breathing status, but monitoring patients for dehydration and kidney problems is crucial. Patient education is essential to ensuring medication adherence and early identification of adverse effects and potential for drug interactions.

“These men were somehow different from other men. They were said to have Soldier's Heart” (XV) Who are these men some might ask and what is Soldier's Heart. Well, page XV tells us, “In the Civil War the syndrome was generally not recognized at all...killing by men using raw firepower...The same young men were fed into madness...in those days there was no scientific knowledge of mental health disorders…Some men came through combat unscathed. Most did not...They were said to have Soldier's Heart” This gives us an abundance of information about the questions stated beforehand. From this quote, we realize that Soldier's Heart is a mental syndrome or disorder. Also we realize that the people diagnosed with Soldier's Heart are troops in the armed

Your childhood is something that is totally unforgettable. Whether it was good or bad, everyone can remember memories of it. Maybe knowing that you can help a child's childhood might make you want to listen to these heartwarming stories from the Make-A-Wish website.

In the valvular disease the regurgitation of blood back to the ventricles occurs when the valves fail to close tightly and this will result in ventricular overload and increased muscle stretching. This increases the heart muscles need for oxygen and energy resulting in the cardiac muscles to contract harder (Karch, 2013). The failure of the left ventricle to pump efficiently will lead to pulmonary vessel congestion and in severe cases, pulmonary edema whereas the inefficient pumping of right ventricle will lead to liver congestion and peripheral edema (edema of the legs and feet). The cardiovascular system works as a closed system and therefore, if one-sided failure left untreated, will eventually lead to failure of both sides (Karch, 2013). The American College of Cardiology (ACC)/ American Heart Association (AHA) has incorporated a classification system of heart failure that include four stages. This staging system (stage A to stage D) recognizes that there are established risk factors and structural abnormalities that are characteristics of the four stages of heart failure.

Total anomalous pulmonary venous connection is a one of rare congenital heart defect. Its accounts 1% of total prevalence of heart defect abnormality. The estimated number of the cases is about one out of 10,000 live (1).The consequence of disrupting the normal development of venous drainage during gestational period leads to this malformation. That will lead to drainage of the pulmonary veins into the right atrium or branches of veins returning to the heart instead of drainage into the left atrium. A surgical repair of this anomalous considers the optimal treatment because it has shown a great decrease in death rate throughout the first year of life (2). Surgical intervention aims to establish a communication between the left atrium and the

Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) are the most prevalent of all birth defects and the leading cause of death in the first year of life, (1) with an annual prevalence ranging from six to twelve affected infants per 1,000 live births. (2)

I am a NP currently working for a Hospital Medicine group in an inpatient setting. My primary job responsibilities are to admit patients into the hospital, round on patients, provide cross cover on the patients on our service, provide cross cover on inpatients who our group is consulted to see, respond to rapid response codes, and occasionally discharge patients.

Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), one of the more common cardiac defects at birth, is the persistence of an opening between the pulmonary artery and the descending thoracic aorta. This opening is as a result of failure of the physiological fetus ductus arteriosus to close, which normally occurs soon after birth. This hole allows for oxygenated blood from the aorta to mix with oxygen-depleted blood from the pulmonary artery. As a consequence, significant strain is placed on the heart and pressure within the lungs’ arteries is dramatically increased.