How to treat right-to-left shunt in the heart
Disease description:
Since the baby was born, his face and lips easily turn blue when he cries a lot. At first, we thought it was just because he was crying too hard. Later, we learned it was due to a heart condition—specifically, an incomplete closure of the heart valve causing right-to-left shunting in the heart. How is right-to-left cardiac shunting treated?
Doctor's answer (1)
Dr. Zhang Jianbin
Surgical repair for right-to-left cardiac shunting may involve correcting atrial or ventricular septal defects and removing stenotic pulmonary arteries. By repairing the cardiac malformations, blood flow can be properly separated between the left and right sides of the heart, thereby alleviating the patient's hypoxia symptoms. In congenital heart disease, when left-to-right shunting progresses to right-to-left shunting due to pulmonary hypertension in the late stage, it indicates advanced disease.
