Patient R.C.T (male, Gia Lai province, born in 2024), currently 3 months old, was hospitalized with respiratory tract infection. Previously, the baby was hospitalized at a local hospital and was found by doctors to have signs of cyanosis. The baby's oxygen saturation was only 80-85% (while the normal is 95-99%). After clinical diagnosis, doctors suspected that the baby had congenital heart disease and decided to transfer him to Children's Hospital 2, Ho Chi Minh City.
At the Emergency Department of Children's Hospital 2, ultrasound showed that the baby had a congenital heart defect called transposition of the great arteries, with a ventricular septal defect and was being monitored for coronary artery abnormalities. According to the family, after birth, the baby showed no signs of heart disease, and the pregnancy ultrasound also did not detect any abnormalities.
After intensive treatment at the hospital, the doctors found that the child was fit for a long and complicated surgery, so they decided to perform the surgery. Master Nguyen Tran Viet Tanh - Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Intensive Care Surgery, Children's Hospital 2, Ho Chi Minh City said that during the surgery, the child will be completely repaired, including closing the ventricular septal defect, reversing the aorta and reimplanting the coronary artery.
During the surgery, doctors discovered an abnormality in the baby's left coronary artery, with its path running through the wall of the aorta. "These are abnormalities that are very difficult to correct, and can even cause difficulties for doctors with extensive experience in pediatric heart surgery. Therefore, we performed the surgery very precisely and meticulously, without any errors," Dr. Tanh shared.
After 6 hours of effort, the team successfully performed the surgery, completely repairing the heart and major blood vessel defects of the child patient. The child's heart beat naturally again with a low dose of vasopressors, the myocardial contractility function was preserved and there was no arrhythmia. After two weeks of care in the post-cardiac surgery recovery room and the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit, the child was taken off the ventilator, recovered well and was discharged to the happiness of the family and doctors.
Transposition of the great arteries is considered one of the most difficult congenital heart defects, in which the two circulations of the system and the lungs function in parallel and independently of each other. The newborn can only survive if urgent intervention is performed to create connections in the heart, allowing oxygenated and deoxygenated blood to mix. The golden time for surgery is within the first month of life, especially in the first week.
