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Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
Cardiac failure after a bi-lateral cavo pulmonary shunt
This forum is for questions and support regarding heart issues such as: Angina, Angioplasty, Arrhythmia, Bypass Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Coronary Artery Disease, Defibrillator, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Mitral Valve Prolapse, Pacemaker, PAD, Stenosis, Stress Tests.
Cardiac failure after a bi-lateral cavo pulmonary shunt
by Rosalie__0, Nov 23, 1998 12:00AM
Our 3 year old daughter had a bi-lateral cavo pulmonary shunt 4 weeks ago.There were no complications afterwards and we went home with her 8 days later.She has Atrio-Ventricular Septal defect with a hypoplastic left ventricle. Mild mitral valve regurg. and mild sub-aortic stenosis. Her pulmonary artery band was tightened at the last surgery. At her last checkup her cardiologist noted she was in cardiac failure. Her liver was enlarged, her abdomen swollen, and she has been puffy in the face and hands. she is on lasix and aldactoneand aspirin. After an echo and ecg. our cardiologist could not find a reason for the failure and we would like to know if this is common after the type of surgery she has had. Do these children go into failure sometimes as a result of the changes in their body. if so, does this failure go away eventually or does it get worse? I'm sorry if i am asking impossible questions, but we don't see our cardiologist for a month and we have so many questions that we did not think of at the time of the appointment. what other causes could there be for this failure? thankyou for your time.
Doctor's Answer
by CCF Cardio MD - MTR, Nov 23, 1998 12:00AM
Dear Rosalie, thank you for your question. I will admit that your’s is a difficult question to answer with the information you’ve provided. Without knowing your daughter, my answer will be mostly speculative. I think it may be quite common to develop congestive heart failure after such a surgery, but what this means for her continued recovery and prognosis, is beyond my scope in this forum. Most likely the congestive heart failure is related to her underlying cardiac condition, and not from some non-cardiac cause. If you are concerned that your daughter is getting worse, then don’t hesitate to call her cardiologist.
I hope you find this information useful. Information provided in the heart forum is for general purposes only. Only your physician can provide specific diagnoses and therapies. Please feel free to write back with additional questions.
If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at www.ccf.org/heartcenter. The Heart Center website contains a directory of the cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your cardiac problem.
