Malformations of the cardiovascular system in newborns are caused by very complex disorders in the laying of organs during fetal development and are accompanied by serious hemodynamic disorders, which, depending on the type and severity of the condition, can occur either immediately after a few hours or after several years of life. Some congenital heart defects are incompatible with life, and require immediate surgical intervention. Otherwise, the child may die.
As a rule, today, heart disease in newborns is determined in utero during gestation by ultrasound. Parents are immediately told what this threatens, and what measures will need to be taken after the birth of such a child.
There are many different classifications of malformations of the cardiovascular system in children. Here is one of them.
All vices are divided into two large groups:
- white (with left-right shunt), with these defects there is no mixing of arterial and venous blood .;
- blue (with right-left shunt), when there is a mixture of arterial blood with venous.
In turn, these groups are divided into several other groups. So, vices are associated with white defects, which are accompanied by overflow of blood in the pulmonary circulation, i.e. lungs (open ductus arteriosus (OAI), atrial and interventricular septal defect (DMA, DMS), open atrioventricular junction, etc.).
They also include heart disease in newborns with depletion of a large circle of blood circulation, i.e. of the whole body, they include such a fairly common defect as coarctation of the aorta (narrowing of the aorta).
Blue malformations include congenital malformations with overflow of the pulmonary circulation, these include aortic transposition, the Eisenmenger complex, as well as malformations with robbing of the pulmonary circulation (tetralogy of Fallot, etc.).
If heart disease in newborns is not detected during pregnancy, then it is established subsequently by clinical manifestations. They can be the most diverse, but there are several clinical symptoms that accompany any defect.
Heart defect symptoms:
- acute or chronic heart failure, accompanied by shortness of breath-cyanotic attacks, pallor, marbling or cyanosis of the skin, which is associated with chronic hypoxia of the child, pallor of the nasolabial triangle, the child has poor body temperature, etc.
- cardiac symptoms develop a little later with the growth of the child, they consist of complaints of pain in the heart, the development of a heart hump is possible (since the newborn’s chest is very malleable), various noises in the heart are heard, and the configuration of the heart and great vessels has been changed in studies.
- respiratory failure, develops with any type of defect. It is accompanied by a lack of air, the child is suffocating, breathing heavily, the respiratory rate far exceeds the normal respiratory rhythm. Sometimes retraction of the soft sections of the chest during inspiration is observed.
- later on, children with defects develop chronic hypoxia, which manifests itself as a symptom of “drumsticks” on the phalanges of the fingers, a lag in the development of any part of the body, or the whole organism.
Absolutely always, a heart defect in newborns is accompanied by heart murmurs that can only be heard by an experienced cardiologist, although any pediatrician will listen to many gross and obvious noises. When you go for a routine examination to the pediatrician, insist that he listen to the heart at least, not to mention the need to measure body length, head circumference, respiratory rate, pulse and pressure. These are the necessary basic examinations of the newborn.