Yang Yang (pseudonym), 8, had intermittent headaches for 5 years. Three months ago, the headache worsened and the children couldn't stand it! The parents finally made up their minds, "Go to Shanghai Children's Medical Center to see a doctor!" As a result, it was found that the child had a strange "arch" in his chest!
"For 5 years, we went to a lot of hospitals, and we never found the cause of the headache, who knew that the headache had to be checked on the chest!" Yang Yang's parents said. Yang Yang's chest CT examination report showed that his aortic arch was shaped like a strange arch, and the aneurysm of the child's large blood vessels and the blood pressure of various parts were detailed through cardiac catheterization, and the examination results showed that Yang Yang suffered from aortic arch deformity, not only had multiple narrowing and tortuous curves, similar to the letter M, but also had aneurysm-like expansion. After a team of experts discussed, surgery is imperative!
Twisted and deformed aortic arch, shaped like the letter M
Yangyang's surgery was performed by the team of chief physician Sun Yanjun. During the operation, it was indeed seen that there was more than one stenosis, distortion and deformation of the aortic arch of Yangyang, and the tissue in the middle of the narrow section was thin and puffed out, and there was a risk of rupture and bleeding at any time. Not only that, the vertebral arteries, common carotid arteries and subclavian arteries that supply the brain, head and upper limbs also have different degrees of aneurysm-like changes and anatomical malformations in the starting part. Surgery removes aneurysm with potential risk of rupture, anastomoses the descending aorta with a normal aortic arch, and re-implants the abnormal left subclavian artery. This difficult operation was carried out methodically with multidisciplinary cooperation, and eventually, the Yangyang Aortic Arch was restored to a beautiful "single arch" form.
Postoperative aortic arch morphology returns to normal
The Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery of Shanghai Children's Medical Center has accumulated a lot of clinical experience in the surgical treatment of congenital cardiovascular malformations. According to Dr. Sun Yanjun, aortic arch lesions are one of the more common congenital heart diseases in children. Severe cases need to be managed in infancy or even in the neonatal period, otherwise growth and development are not only limited, but also life-threatening. Although the narrowing of Yangyang is not the most severe, it will also cause an increase in blood pressure before the stenosis, which will increase the workload of the heart and cause clinical symptoms such as headache. At the same time, some children with abnormal anatomy of the aorta often have tumor-like dilation of blood vessels at the same time, and there is a risk of rupture and bleeding, which also requires surgical correction.
Source: Pudong Release