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Can he competitive swim again after bypass?

My son has a single right coronary artery (left artery arises from the right and goes between the great vessels.)  Cheitlin Anomaly they are also calling it.  Because he is 14 and this is life threatening/linked to sudden death he will be having bypass surgery we believe. He just had decompression surgery for chairi 1 malformation.  We are hoping he can one day swim on the school team again.  His neuro has released him as long as he is careful and doesnt over do it.  As far as the bypass though what can I expect for recovery time and will he ever be allowed to swim on the team again?  If so are there restrictions with it?  What are common restrictions from this once fully recovered?  What can we expect in general for recovery time etc.  He hasnt been in school since Feb with his decompression recovery so if they do bypass we are thinking sooner the better, we really want him to return to school in September.  Many TX!!  You all have been SO helpful with me so far :)

Robin ~
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773637 tn?1327446915
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
I would recommend that if you would like to get a second opinion and delve into this further, that would be the better way to go than to try to sort this out through this forum.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Thank you so much for your reply :)  DEF good to hear that point of view, this has been very hard on us with all he has faced already.  I def plan to talk to his cardiologist regarding since most of the information we've found and been told so far is like this particular article in that stress tests sadly arent conclusive since some of the athletes who have suddenly passed did these things before and were fine so hard to predict who is safe and not safe based on stress tests.  But perhaps they can tell more nowadays by blood flow so we can avoid surgery and just monitor :)  Here is one article ~ Daniel has ALCA which in this article says is more dangerous then ARCA.  

http://content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/content/full/51/21/2065

I'd def love to hear Dr. Brothers views on this if she'd be so kind as to look at it.  Sadly his anomaly isnt as common I think and there is very limited information on it for his docs to go by.   I dont want to make the wrong decision if whats best ~

Thank you again so much!!  
Robin ~
Helpful - 0
773637 tn?1327446915
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Dear Robin,

Having read and responded to your posts previously on this board, I am somewhat familiar with your son’s case.  In further discussing his anatomy with Dr. Julie Brothers, one of our cardiologists who is also an expert in anomalous coronary artery anatomy and outcomes, it appears that he may not necessarily be at increased risk for decreased blood flow to his heart with the anatomy that you describe.  As previously recommended, a exercise-associated cardiac perfusion test would be appropriate to ensure that he has adequate blood flow.  If this is normal, cardiac bypass may not be indicated and he can be observed, with routine follow-up over the years.  This also means that, if he has normal exercise tolerance and cardiac blood flow, he should be able to exercise competitively.
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