Saving the life of a boy with only 10% heart function left

Specialist Doctor I Pham Thuc Minh Thuy, Department of Congenital Heart Disease, Cardiovascular Center, Tam Anh General Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, explains that congenital cyanotic heart disease occurs when less blood circulates through the heart and lungs, causing poorly oxygenated blood to be pumped out of the body. This condition causes the child's skin to turn purple.

Three months ago, the patient was admitted to the hospital with severely reduced heart function, the echocardiogram showed that the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was only 10% (normally at least 50%), with severe purple skin and mucous membranes. The blood oxygen saturation index (SpO2) was 60% while the normal range is 98-100%, meaning that the ability to supply oxygen to the brain and organs was severely reduced. The child could only sit in one place, breathing laboriously and purple, unable to do basic tasks such as eating, walking, bathing, etc.

Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Nguyen Vinh, Director of the Cardiovascular Center, Tam Anh General Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, said that MT had severe congenital cyanotic heart disease leading to chronic prolonged hypoxia affecting the heart muscle, reducing ejection fraction, causing heart failure on the basis of pulmonary valve stenosis (a congenital defect that interrupts blood flow to the lungs).

“In more than 50 years of working in the medical field, I have never encountered a case of congenital cyanosis with impaired heart function like this,” Associate Professor Vinh said.

The boy’s father said that his son had suffered from heart disease for a long time and was only treated with internal medicine and monitored outside the hospital. For about 6 months now, the disease has progressed so badly that he has had to drop out of school. His heart function is very poor, and he has severe heart failure, and cannot undergo intervention or surgery.

Doctors consulted international medical literature to determine the cause of the baby's severe heart failure, then consulted and decided to perform a cardiac catheterization to treat the heart failure. MT was given medication and prepared to perform the procedure to help the heart recover.

The cardiac catheterization team performed angioplasty of the stenotic collateral circulation (superficial veins emerge and develop branches under the abdominal skin), with a 50% success rate.

After a 60-minute surgery, the doctor successfully placed a 7mm stent into the pulmonary artery branch. The patient did not have pulmonary edema or heart failure. After treatment, heart function gradually increased to 60%, almost reaching the level of a normal child.

A recent re-examination showed that the baby's health was stable, he could walk on his own, returned to school, and recently went on a trip with his family to Ba Den Mountain (Tay Ninh). This was a result that the doctors could not have expected.

When heart function recovers, the patient will have surgery to repair the heart defect, then need lifelong monitoring and regular check-ups according to the doctor's schedule.

Source: https://nhandan.vn/cuu-song-be-trai-chi-con-10-chuc-nang-tim-post825580.html