Congenital heart disease is still baffling the medical community and despite many elaborate research studies, scientists are yet to find the exact cause for the congenital heart disease. The only known fact is that the disease affects children right from the fetal stage or even when the child is in womb.
Various Types of Congenital Heart Disease
Congenital heart disease is primarily classified into two types and they are:
The connection between the articles and the ventricles of heart will not be proper and hence improper direction of oxygenated blood.
A hole in heart leading to mix up of pure and impure blood.
The presence of congenital heart disease will be symptomatically represented by presence of breathlessness, continuous fatigue, weight loss for no valid reasons, cyanosis and constant severe chest pains.
There is one more school of thought that link alcohol or cocaine use or abuse by pregnant mothers that lead to congenital heart disease in the child. Normally, congenital heart disease will be diagnosed using tests such as chest X-rays, pulse oximetry, intravascular catheterisation, electrocardiogram, position emission tomography, and echocardiogram.
After the initial diagnosis, the final treatment schedule will be decided based on the patient s condition and the severity of the disease. Most often, surgery will be a permanent solution for survival, but the option will turn out to be a costly affair, as only well qualified surgeons alone are capable of carrying out the surgery successfully.
However, with advent of various scientific techniques such as surgery related nano technology, there is a good scope for reduction in cost with increased success rates for treating children with congenital heart disease. The very success of treatment lies in early diagnosis of the condition in children and an early surgery alone can greatly increase the success and the chances of survival for the child.
As a parent of child with congenital heart disease, the first aim should be to protect the child from any possible stress, both physical and mental, and the parents have a very great responsibility of knowing and watching the symptoms and give proper treatment symptomatically. It is also possible to detect congenital heart disease of the unborn child through various techniques such as ultrasound tests during pregnancy and the concerned parent can take corrective or remedial measures even before giving birth to the child.
A timely administered medical help can effectively alter the difference between life and death and hence you should never fail in your endeavour to give your child a proper, good and timely treatment.
[tags]Alcohol, Ultrasound Tests, Electrocardiogram[/tags]