Congenital Heart Disease

Congenital Heart Disease Shanghai

If you notice that your baby has any symptoms like loss of healthy skin color, appearing pale gray or blue, rapid breathing, easily becoming short of breath or tiring during exercise or activity, swelling in the legs, abdomen or areas around the eyes, or shortness of breath during feedings leading to poor weight gain, you should be aware of the possibility of congenital heart disease and take your child to see a doctor.

Most congenital heart defects result from certain environmental and genetic risk factors during your child's heart development including: rubella, diabetes, medication and heredity. There are many different types of congenital heart defects like holes in the heart, obstructed blood flow, abnormal blood vessels, heart valve abnormalities and a combination of defects. The potential complications that can occur with a congenital heart defect include congestive heart failure, slower growth and development, emotional issues and a need for lifelong follow-up.

Our doctors will help you rule out or confirm if a congenital condition exists with your child by doing the following clinical procedures and tests:

• Regular physical examination

• Electrocardiogram

• Echocardiogram

• Chest X-ray

• Pulse Oximetry

• Arrangement of Cardiac Catheterization or Angiogram

If the defect in your child’s heart is minor, treatment is often unnecessary. For example, a small hole between heart chambers may close on its own over time. That’s good news which we can confirm for you. However, in other cases, if serious heart defects are diagnosed by the above tests and medical reviews, our doctors will work with expert specialists from known local medical centers in Shanghai and the US to help you develop a most suitable treatment plan for your child. In addition, we will be able to quickly put you into the inpatient treatment process through our established access channels with the best medical centers for interventional or surgical operations. After that, we will continue to be with you on post-operational follow up reviews, personalized cardiac rehabilitation plan and long-term monitoring.