The youngest and lowest weight heart transplant patient in East China was discharged from the hospital today, and the National Children's Medical Center carefully treated him
Xiaoxiao, a child who successfully underwent a heart transplant at the Children's Hospital of Fudan University, was successfully discharged from the hospital today. This is the second heart transplant performed by the Children's Hospital of Fudan University, and it is also the youngest and lowest weight infant heart transplant in East China. .
It is reported that Xiaoxiao, who is from Xiamen, was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy within three months and sought treatment in many hospitals. Two months ago, her parents came to Fudan Pediatrics for treatment. Seeing the heart that had enlarged into a spherical shape, Liu Fang, director of the Department of Cardiology, immediately took her to the ward for systematic evaluation and treatment.
The pediatric hospital has formed a standard treatment plan for heart failure. Taking into account Xiaoxiao's condition, Dr. Wang Feng dynamically adjusted the drugs in real time to maintain Xiaoxiao's cardiac function. After a comprehensive examination and evaluation, the expert team found that although Xiaoxiao was young, she had an early onset of heart failure and her heart failure had reached a very serious stage, and simple drug treatment could not sustain it.
The so-called heart failure means heart failure, which means that the function of the heart, the engine, is severely damaged and cannot complete normal functions. For patients with end-stage heart failure caused by various causes, heart transplantation is the only hope for survival.
Since Xiaoxiao's heart function has reached the end-stage of heart failure and cannot be reversed by drugs and other conventional treatments, after many discussions and evaluations by the cardiovascular center team, experts unanimously believe that heart transplantation is the only way to save Xiaoxiao.
It is understood that due to the limited number of donors, my country can only perform 500 to 600 heart transplant operations every year, which accounts for a very low proportion of the nearly one million end-stage heart failure people in the country. Children's heart transplants are even rarer. Only a few transplant centers in China can complete heart transplants for infants.
After communicating with her parents, Dr. Zhang Wenbo of the transplant team added Xiaoxiao to the CORTS system to wait for a suitable heart. While waiting, Xiaoxiao developed severe respiratory syncytial virus infection. After careful care by the heart failure treatment team, she made it through.
On November 6, Xiaoxiao finally received the donor. Dr. Zhang Wenbo from the Department of Cardiac Surgery immediately contacted the ambulance and rushed to the donation hospital in other provinces. After obtaining the precious donor, he rushed back to Shanghai at 22:00 at night. The surgical transplant team stood ready on the operating table. After carefully inspecting and trimming the donor heart, they placed the heart into the chest cavity and carefully completed the anastomosis. Half an hour later, following the "open aorta" command, a new heart began to beat in Xiaoxiao's body!
Only 36 hours after the operation, Xiaoxiao was weaned from the ventilator, and her heartbeat, blood oxygenation and breathing were stable. After another three days of treatment, she was able to drink milk on her own. When the echocardiogram confirmed that Xiaoxiao was recovering well, she was transferred to the general ward and returned to her parents.
Professor Ye Ming, Director of Cardiac Surgery at Fudan Children's Hospital, said: There are about 40,000 children with heart failure in my country every year due to congenital and acquired causes. Once heart failure develops into the end stage, the only treatment currently is heart transplantation. However, the technical difficulty of heart transplantation in children is much higher than that in adults, and the proportion of children who can get suitable donor hearts is also much lower than that in adults. So far, only about 50 children's heart transplant surgeries are completed in the country every year. The heart transplant patient Xiaoxiao is only 1 year and 9 months old and weighs 7.5 kilograms. She is the youngest and lowest weight heart transplant patient reported in East China.
Professor Zhai Xiaowen, Vice President of Fudan Pediatrics, introduced that as the National Children’s Medical Center, Fudan Pediatrics is the largest and most complete diagnosis and treatment center for Kawasaki disease in the country and an ECMO diagnosis and treatment center in East China. is at the national leading level. With the routine development of heart transplantation technology, it marks the hospital's further progress in the treatment of critical heart failure. In the future, more children with heart failure will be treated and bring hope to more families.
