Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) Treatment in Infants through Open Heart Surgery

When a child is born, he brings immense happiness with him but when the same child is born with a defect or more clearly, with a hole in the heart, he brings worries and tensions with him. When the baby is in the womb, he starts developing his heart as a hollow tube followed by developing partition wall called as septa to distinguish between the right and left side of the heart. When this wall does not develop completely leaving a hole in the wall, the condition is said to be the ventricular septal defect. This hole allows blood to flow from left ventricle to right ventricle further transported to the lung arteries. If the wall opening is large, maximum blood will flow to the lungs causing pressure and congestion in lungs. This is a congenital heart defect observed in infants from the time of birth.

Symptoms of Ventricular Septal Defect

When a child is diagnosed with the ventricular septal defect, few observations will let you know about the condition of your child although small holes can get closed with growing age in infants. Some of the symptoms during ventricular septal defects are-

• Poor Feeding: The baby will not be interested in feeding or will have limited feeding. Babies can be noticed with sweat and crying a lot while feeding.
• Failure To Gain Weight And Grow Properly: As the baby will be poor in feeding, growth will be slow as a result and will not gain any weight.
• Fast Breathing or Breathlessness: The baby will be seen running short of breath or breathing very fast as pressure is building upon his/her lungs.
• Fatigue: The baby will be seen getting easily tired.

These symptoms will let parents know that the condition of the baby is severe and he needs surgical intervention for effective treatment of VSD.

VSD through Open Heart Surgery

The thought of getting the baby treated with open heart surgery is scary, isn’t it? But yes, this is for the well-being of the baby to enhance his/her further growth for the rest of his/her life. If the opening is large then the baby needs to go for open heart surgery. The baby will be treated under general anesthesia which allows the baby to sleep during the surgical intervention and will not experience any kind of pain. During the surgery, pericardium or the patch of fabric is used to sew the VSD to close it completely. With the growing age these tissues will build up over this patch and this patch becomes the permanent part of the heart which will block the opening completely. Ultimately when the opening gets closed, the right and left ventricles of the heart will work efficiently in the manner they are supposed to be and the baby will be healthy and fine thereafter.

VSD Cost of Treatment

Every parent wishes the well-being of their child and nothing matters more to them. Although for every parent surgery may sound frightening but the treatment for ventricular septal defect is carried out at absolutely low risk and maximum success rate. The open heart surgery cost may however depend upon the technology used and the number of areas to be operated. However, ventricular septal defect cost of treatment is comparatively low when compared to other countries.