The baby boy held his breath as soon as he cried, and the doctor put a small ball to open the "heart door"

Jimu news reporter Liu Xun

Correspondent Gao Chenchen

Baby boys suffer from severe stenosis of the aortic valve, only a small slit is left in the "gate" of the heart, the blood supply is seriously insufficient, and the child will hold his breath as soon as he cries, and may die suddenly at any time. Recently, the cardiovascular medicine team at Wuhan Children's Hospital helped smooth blood flow through catheter intervention. On January 26, the baby, who was recovering well, was successfully discharged from the hospital.

The "heart gate" is too narrow, and the baby's breath is hanging in the balance

In December last year, baby boy Tong Tong (pseudonym) was born in Suizhou City, Hubei Province. Soon after birth, when the family members cry, they often hold their breathless and their lips are purple. For further treatment, his parents took him to Wuhan Children's Hospital. Further examination revealed that the child had severe aortic stenosis.

Daniel Zhang, director of the Department of Cardiovascular Diseases and Internal Medicine of Wuhan Children's Hospital, introduced that the aortic valve is located at the junction of the left ventricle and the aorta of the human body, and is the last one-way "valve" when the heart shoots blood. The aortic valve is narrow, that is, the door that should be easily opened is only a small slit, and the blood "can't run", affecting the heart to pump blood throughout the body, so that the organs of the whole body will be "not enough to eat". Your child's lips are purple and breathing is difficult. Severe aortic stenosis can lead to malignant arrhythmias that are likely to be life-threatening. For Tong Tong, a cry can take his young life.

Multi-disciplinary expert consultation, "open" the door of the heart

The child needs to be rescued immediately. After consultation with multidisciplinary experts in cardiothoracic surgery, cardiovascular medicine, anesthesiology, and intensive care medicine department of Wuhan Children's Hospital, it was decided to do transcatheter aortic valve balloon dilation for children.

Simply put, it is to send a balloon into the child's body, and use the balloon to "prop open" the narrow aortic valve. This surgical method has higher requirements and higher risks for doctors, but the effect is good and the trauma to the child can be minimized.

On January 23, the 22-day-old boy was on the operating table. Considering that the child may have ventricular fibrillation, cardiac arrest and other critical situations at any time, preoperative experts make emergency plans: multidisciplinary experts escort children in the operating room, and defibrillators, first aid drugs, ECMO and other emergency equipment are also waiting.

Escorted by the team of Director Zhong Liang of the Department of Anesthesiology, the team of the Director of the Department of Cardiology Daniel Zhang performed the operation for children. The catheter passes through the coronary arteries, but it is also an important channel for the blood supply of the baby's heart, and when the catheter passes, the baby will be more hypoxic. Therefore, the doctor should reduce the operation time as much as possible and open the valve quickly and accurately.

After precise and rapid operation, the director of the Daniel Zhang successfully enlarged the narrowed aortic valve. During the operation, the child's heart rate fell at one point, but fortunately, there was no danger. After the operation, the child recovered smoothly.

Eliminate the pain of opening the chest and bring hope to more children

Director Daniel Zhang introduced that compared with traditional surgery, aortic valve balloon plasty eliminates the pain of open surgery and has the characteristics of less trauma, less pain and faster recovery. However, due to the strict indications of the operation, the high risk of surgery, the high requirements for the medical team, and the need for the support of various fraternal departments, only a few hospitals in China currently carry out this operation.

Nowadays, some fetal infants can find pulmonary stenosis, severe stenosis affects survival, for children with severe pulmonary stenosis need surgery after birth, transcatheter intervention surgery treatment is small trauma, fast recovery, most of the postoperative prognosis is good.