CHD Awareness week Feb 7-14

With it being CHD awareness week i wanted to share the actual definitions of Libbi's condition along with some interesting statistics.

Ebstein's Anomaly - a malformation and displacement of the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle. An ASD is sometimes present with this defect. While there is free flow of blood forward across the tricuspid valve to the right ventricle, the deformed tricuspid valve allows a large amount of blood to flow backwards from the right ventricle to right atrium when the right ventricle contracts. Surgery may be required and the repair may involve a Blalock-Taussig shunt or a repair to the tricuspid valve and right ventricle.

Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndrome (HRHS) - a condition where the right side of the heart is underdeveloped, typically the right ventricle. Pulmonary atresia and/or tricuspid atresia are also present with this defect. There are two main options to correct HRHS - one is a "one-and-a-half ventricle repair" and the other is a three-stage surgery. The first stage is a Blalock-Taussig shunt, done soon after birth. The second is the Glenn, which is usually done between 4 months and 6 months of age. The third is the Fontan, which is usually done before the child enters kindergarden.

Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) - a hole in the septum of the lower left and lower right heart chambers. This allows blue blood to mix with red blood, causing the heart to be overworked and possibly enlarged. A small hole may not need to be closed, a medium-sized hole may be closed during a cardiac catheterization and a larger hole may require surgery.


CHD Statistics


*Every fifteen minutes a baby is born with a CHD.
*Congenital heart defects are America’s #1 birth defect. Nearly one of every 125 babies is born with a CHD (almost 1% of all children born each year!).
*Congenital heart defects are the #1 cause of birth defect related deaths. 1 in 3 children who die from a birth defect have a congenital heart defect.
*This year almost 40,000 babies will be born with a congenital heart defect.
*In the U.S. twice as many children die from congenital heart defects each year than from all forms of childhood cancer combined. Yet funding for research of pediatric cancer is 5 times greater.
*From 1993 to 2003 death rates for congenital heart defects have declined by 31% due to advances made through research!
*There is not yet a preventative cure for any type of congenital heart defect.
*Of every dollar the government spends on medical funding, only a fraction of a penny is directed toward congenital heart defect research.

I knew this and still got a little quesy reading it again. It's important to be aware of these types of things. Spread the word!