Congenital heart defect corrective surgeries are used to fix or treat heart defects that appear with birth. An individual born with a congenital heart disease needs to get this correction done if the defect itself is considered to be life-threatening. There are a number of different treatments and corrections for different defects involved.
There is a natural appearance blood vessel between the aorta and the pulmonary artery, called the ductus arteriosus. This happens before birth and it usually closes after it. If, however, this does not transpire, it becomes a condition known as patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). A PDA ligation is then needed to correct this defect. It is sometimes done through the use of simple tubes inserted into the leg artery, passing all the way through to the heart. A small metal wire is then inserted into the tube which blocks the blood flow and corrects the problem. Another way is through making a number of incisions on the left side of the chest. The surgeon will then tie or cut off the ductus arteriosus. Tying is called ligation.
Coarctation of the aorta happens when one of its parts narrows down, looking somewhat like an hourglass. This is usually repaired by cutting the narrow part off and patching up the loose ends. Another way is through the use of a subclavian flap. This procedure "borrows" a patch from the subclavian artery and uses it to enlarge the narrow section. The correction can also be done by a tube bypass of the narrow section.
An atrial septum is the wall between the left and right atria (upper chambers of the heart). The opening between them is usually closed after birth. When this does not happen, a correction – ASD repair – is needed. It can be done without open-heart surgery by inserting a tube into the blood vessels that go into the heart. This is done through an incision in the groin. Next, the surgeon places 2 umbrella-like "clam-shell" devices on each side of the septum.
There is a number of other corrections for different defects that might appear. Unfortunately, there are numerous variations in which the heart of a newly born baby can present with, but there are as many ways to treat these conditions. Some of these include a ventricular septum, a tetrology of fallot, a transposition of the great vessel, a truncus arteriosus, a tricuspid atresia, a total anomalous pulmonary venous return (TAPVR), and so on.
The majority of these conditions require an open-heart surgery, although there are exceptions, such as the tricuspid atresia repair which requires a series of smaller procedures that will eventually correct the blood to flow into the lungs from where it is pumped into the rest of the body via the left ventricle.
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