Krasnoyarsk doctors performed a second operation on a newborn with a severe heart defect

The Krasnoyarsk Cardiac Center has already performed two operations for a child with a complex heart anomaly, who came from Belgorod.

The center's press service said that seven months ago Anna from Belgorod learned during a routine ultrasound that her unborn daughter had a severe heart defect – Ebstein's anomaly. The woman immediately began to study what kind of disease this was and how it could be defeated. She studied reviews of cardiac surgeons and clinics in Russia and was very impressed with the results of treatment of complex heart defects at the Federal Center for Cardiovascular Surgery in Krasnoyarsk.

Anna wrote a letter to the head of the children's department of the center, Pavel Teplov, and soon received an answer: “Come give birth in Krasnoyarsk, I will operate on the child at the Cardiocenter.”

All formalities were resolved in a few weeks, the woman arrived in Krasnoyarsk and safely gave birth to a baby in the regional center for maternal and child health. Doctors confirmed the presence of a congenital heart defect and transferred the little patient, whom her parents named Vasilisa, to the federal Cardiocenter. There she had her first operation.

“After the first operation, we went home, and the doctors who observed us in Belgorod were surprised that we had the operation in Krasnoyarsk, and not in the capital’s clinics, which are much closer to us. But when the doctor looked at the ultrasound of the heart to see how the first operation was performed, she said: “Now I understand why you are going to Siberia.” The pediatricians were surprised that with such a severe defect, the first stage of treatment was carried out so meticulously; they expected to see a difficult child, but the daughter was cheerful, active, and gaining weight well. And then the time came for the second stage, we traveled by train for five days, because we couldn’t fly by plane,” said Anna and advised mothers whose children were diagnosed with heart defects not to lose hope and trust the doctor.

The Krasnoyarsk Cardiocenter said that with Ebstein’s anomaly, one of the heart valves is displaced into the cavity of the right ventricle. This can lead to disruption of blood flow into the pulmonary artery. Doctors use the Starnes operation, during which the entire right ventricle of the heart is “switched off”, after which it was not possible to completely restore normal heart function.

Krasnoyarsk cardiac surgeons have already performed several operations restoring almost normal heart function after Starnes’ operation.

“In a number of cases, we were able to perform a cone reconstruction of the valve, restore its function and close the atrial septal defect. Usually we supplemented this operation with Glenn’s operation, doing the so-called one and a half ventricular correction, which in its hemodynamics is close to full, i.e., healthy heart function and does not affect the quality of life. In the case of Vasilisa, we were able to completely restore the correct functioning of the heart with two full ventricles,” comments Pavel Teplov, head of the children’s department.

Specialists of the Federal Center for Cardiovascular Surgery of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation of Krasnoyarsk do a lot of work to restore normal hemodynamics of the heart in children with borderline sizes of the heart cavities, in many cases it is possible to avoid palliative operations, and therefore disability of children.