According to the family, the patient is a boy named V.Q.T (4 years old, from Dong Thap province) with symptoms of slow weight gain, often cold hands and feet when playing, cough and recurrent pneumonia. The family took the child to the doctor and had an ultrasound, and discovered that the patient had congenital heart disease with atrial septal defect, so he was taken to Hoan My Cuu Long Hospital (Can Tho City) for treatment.
After consultation, the medical team agreed to treat the child with minimally invasive heart surgery with a small incision.
About 48 hours after surgery, the patient's health condition improved, vital signs were stable, and test results were normal. The patient was discharged after 5 days of treatment and outpatient follow-up as scheduled by the doctor.
Specialist Doctor 2 Tran Phuoc Hoa - Head of Cardiovascular Surgery - Thoracic - Cardiac Resuscitation Department, Hoan My Cuu Long Hospital - said that congenital heart disease is the most common malformation and the leading cause of death among congenital malformations in young children.
Dr. Hoa also noted that it is important for parents to take their children for examination and screening for congenital heart disease at least once in their lifetime.
According to Dr. Hoa, in the past, to perform heart surgery, doctors accessed the heart through an incision in the chest between the sternum, with the risk of leaving a long surgical scar on the chest and possibly encountering some dangerous complications when having to separate the sternum.
Minimally invasive heart surgery is a modern treatment technique with high safety, a small incision of about 4cm, located in the 4th intercostal space on the right side of the chest, hidden in the natural folds of the body. At the same time, this method helps reduce the risk of infection, less pain, early recovery after surgery, and shortens the hospital stay compared to conventional heart surgery.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, for every 1,000 children born, 8 will have congenital heart disease. It is estimated that each year in Vietnam, up to 12,000 newborns have congenital heart disease, many of whom will have no symptoms and remain healthy and live normally. However, in the long term, if congenital heart disease is not treated, it will lead to complications such as right heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, increased risk of stroke...
