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Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffA congenital heart defect may have no long-term effect on your child's health — in some instances, such defects can safely go untreated. Sometimes they aren't even discovered until adulthood.
Some heart defects, however, are serious and require treatment soon after they're found. Depending on the type of heart defect your child has, doctors treat congenital heart defects with:
- Procedures using catheters. Some children and adults now have their congenital heart defects repaired using catheterization techniques, which allow the repair to be done without surgically opening the chest and heart. In procedures that can be done using catheterization, the doctor inserts a thin tube (catheter) into a leg vein and guides it to the heart with the help of X-ray images. Once the catheter is positioned at the site of the defect, tiny tools are threaded through the catheter to the heart to repair the defect.
- Open heart surgery. In some cases, your child's doctor won't be able to fix your child's heart defect using a catheter procedure. In these cases, your child's doctor may perform open-heart surgery to try to repair your child's heart defect. These surgeries are major medical procedures and may require a long recovery time for your child.
- Heart transplant. If a serious heart defect can't be repaired, a heart transplant may be an option.
- Medications. Some mild congenital heart defects, especially those found later in childhood or adulthood, can be treated with medications that help the heart work more efficiently.
Long-term treatment
Some children with congenital heart disease require multiple procedures and surgeries throughout life. Although the outcomes for children with heart defects have improved dramatically, most people, except those with very simple defects, will require lifelong medical care, even after corrective surgery.
- Congenital heart defects. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/chd/chd_all.html. Accessed Sept. 8, 2008.
- Congenital heart defects in children fact sheet. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=12012. Accessed Sept. 8, 2008.
- Diabetes and pregnancy frequently asked questions. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/bd/diabetespregnancyfaqs.htm#whatcanhappentoababy. Accessed Sept. 18, 2008.
