{"id":1636,"date":"2021-10-20T18:17:14","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T18:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=1636"},"modified":"2023-09-27T18:47:12","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T18:47:12","slug":"pediatric-heart-valve-surgery","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/pediatric-heart-valve-surgery\/","title":{"rendered":"Pediatric Heart Valve Surgery: What Should Parents Know?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defect.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/ncbddd\/heartdefects\/facts.html\">congenital heart defects<\/a> are present at birth and can affect how blood flows through the heart and body.\u00a0 There are several different types of congenital heart disease which may impact the functioning of one or more of the four valves within the heart.\u00a0 For example, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/ncbddd\/heartdefects\/tetralogyoffallot.html\">Tetralogy of Fallot<\/a> is a congenital heart defect which compromises the ability of the pulmonary and aortic valve to effectively move blood through the heart.<\/p>\n<p>To learn about the diagnosis, the management and the treatment of pediatric heart valve disease, we interviewed <a href=\"https:\/\/bio.cedars-sinai.org\/kimr3\/index.html?_ga=2.164654207.1729290805.1634688247-1907320216.1634688247&amp;_gac=1.24846920.1634688251.CjwKCAjw2bmLBhBREiwAZ6ugo7GB27SMhvsKaJGPKzeS61cBD1l7G3pCQr3JNu_BMojtIJAhlUE2GRoCN9YQAvD_BwE\">Dr. Richard Kim<\/a>, Surgical Director of the Guerin Family Congenital Heart Program at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/hospital\/cedars-sinai-heart-institute\">Cedars-Sinai Medical Center<\/a> in Los Angeles, California.\u00a0 During his extraordinary career, Dr. Kim has performed over 2,000 cardiac procedures.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SbvKqgXov-0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Key Learnings About Pediatric Heart Valve Surgery<\/h2>\n<p>Here are several important points that Dr. Kim shared during our interview:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dr. Kim&#8217;s passion for cardiac surgery began in medical school after he saw his first heart operation.\u00a0 Dr. Kim became fascinated by the significant and positive impact a successful cardiac surgery could have on patient life.\u00a0 Specific to pediatric heart surgery, Dr. Kim&#8217;s passion for treating children expanded when Dr. Kim became a parent himself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1643 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/CR_Kim-Richard.KimR3_.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Richard Kim\" width=\"174\" height=\"244\" \/>Dr. Richard Kim<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Congenital heart disease is a defect that a child is born with.\u00a0 The defect occurs as the child develops during pregnancy.\u00a0 A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/bicuspid-aortic-valve-symptoms.php\">bicuspid aortic valve<\/a> is common form of congenital heart disease in which two of the three leaflets within the aortic valve fuse together during pregnancy.<\/li>\n<li>There are many opportunities to detect congenital heart disease throughout the different stages of a patient&#8217;s life. At 18-20 weeks of pregnancy, a fetal ultrasound can identify congenital heart disease in utero. At birth, an oxygen test can detect congenital heart disease. A stethoscope will often identify congenital heart disease in young children and adults when a murmur is heard by a physician.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1644 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/fetus-heart-valve-dr-kim.jpg\" alt=\"Fetus Congenital Heart Disease\" width=\"650\" height=\"375\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Common symptoms that may be experienced by patients with congenital heart disease include shortness of breath and fatigue.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Kim suggests that parents often feel an extreme amount of guilt that they were responsible for passing congenital heart disease to their children. While there are types of congenital heart disease that include a genetic component, the vast majority of congenital heart disease is not inherited from the parents.<\/li>\n<li>The treatments for congenital heart disease can range from a simple intervention to challenging and very complex procedures that transform the physiology of the heart.<\/li>\n<li>According to Dr. Kim, the most common misconception about pediatric heart valve surgery is that a single procedure will &#8220;fix&#8221; the heart.\u00a0 Instead, Dr. Kim suggests that families regularly follow the patient&#8217;s congenital heart disease which may require multiple interventions during the patient&#8217;s life.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1645 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/pediatric-heart-transformation.jpg\" alt=\"Pediatric Heart Valve Surgery\" width=\"650\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The field of pediatric heart valve surgery is rapidly advancing. New therapies may use minimally-invasive devices and leverage a hybrid approach of surgical and interventional techniques. One example of this innovation is a new dilatable heart valve that can grow (be expanded) as the child grows.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Kim&#8217;s advice for parents is (i) to realize that you are not alone, (ii) to take your time when identifying your medical team \/ treatment plan, and (iii) to remember that congenital heart disease is a life-long disease that needs to be followed by an experienced and specialized medical team.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1646 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/Dr-Richard-Kim-Advice-Pediatric-Heart-Valve-Surgery.jpg\" alt=\"Advice for Congenital Heart Disease Parents\" width=\"650\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Many Thanks to Dr. Kim &amp; Cedars-Sinai!!!<\/h2>\n<p>On behalf of our entire patient community, many thanks to Dr. Kim for sharing his clinical experience and research with our community!\u00a0 Also, many thanks to the Cedars-Sinai team for taking such great care of heart valve patients!<\/p>\n<p>Keep on tickin!<br \/>\nAdam<\/p>\n<p>P.S. For the hearing impaired members of our community, I have provided a written transcript of my video interview with Dr. Kim below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"cms.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"class_list":["post-1636","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-adams-updates"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1636"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3855,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1636\/revisions\/3855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}