The usual management for single ventricle congenital heart defects is staged surgical treatment leading to the Fontan operation. In this path, children go trough different phases or stages. Stage I is characterised by overwork of the single ventricle which has to pump blood to the lungs as well as the general circulation. With the second…
Hypoplastic left heart syndrome is a condition where the left side of the heart is unable to do its normal work of pumping blood trough the body. One of the common features of HLHS is that the outlet valve from the left ventricle (the aortic valve) and the area just beneath (the left ventricular outflow…
For Abdullaziz Al Shukry, Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) is more than a hospital. It is the place that offered his son, Abdullah, a second chance at life. Read full story
Nearly 1 in 100 children is born with a congenital heart defect (CHD). Fortunately, only a minority of children have defects which require treatment over the course of their life. The remainder will only need regular medical follow-up. The absence of systematic and accurate long term follow-up data for these children and the assumption that…
Abnormal development in children with congenital heart disease (CHD) has been very well described and is very distressing for families and carers. Many causes have been suggested, including the cardiac defect itself, the cardiac treatment received and the abnormal blood flow or oxygenation that remains after cardiac surgery in many children. The size of the…