Every day in Poland ten children are born with a heart defect. These defects are one of the most common causes of infant death. Fortunately, doctors are increasingly able to help. The most modern pediatric operating room in Europe has been opened in Krakow, which allows one to perform one instead of several operations – as previously in the case of complex heart defects -.
Many parents find out about their child’s heart problems during ultrasound, while they are still pregnant. If they are lucky, the gynecologist will refer them to a prenatal cardiologist who diagnoses the defect and sends the mother to the appropriate center where specialists will be able to plan the baby’s treatment from the first moments of his life, and sometimes even during pregnancy. It happens, however, that the gynecologist suggests that nothing can be done and that the pregnancy is terminated.
What can be done?
Hania from Warsaw is five years old. She is alive because the gynecologist discovered her heart defect on an ultrasound scan before she was born. In some cases, treatment begins in utero or shortly after birth.
The success of surgical interventions depends to a very large extent on when the defect is diagnosed and in what condition the baby reaches the specialist center. Unfortunately, it also happens that parents find out about a heart defect a few hours after the birth of their baby, when it suddenly begins to turn blue for unexplained reasons. If the doctor notices this and makes a timely referral to a specialized center, the baby has a chance of being cured. However, sometimes a newborn baby dies a few hours after giving birth. Hania was born with only one ventricle. She had her first operation on the sixth day of her life. Then there were three more. Today Hania goes to kindergarten. Apart from check-ups with cardiologists, the heart defect does not take its toll.
Not enough doctors
It is estimated that approximately 3500 children with congenital heart defects are born annually in Poland. About 30% of them require immediate treatment in the first days of life, and 70% in the first years of life. The number of small patients is increasing due to the better survival of premature babies, which has a higher percentage of heart defects than in the full-term population, and also due to a much better recognition of heart defects immediately after birth in neonatal units. The number of children undergoing multi-stage treatment, requiring repeated invasive and non-invasive tests to monitor the condition of the circulatory system, is also increasing. Meanwhile, highly specialized treatment centers are becoming inefficient, and there is a shortage of places, personnel and equipment. There are voivodships where there is no public pediatric cardiology clinic due to the lack of staff. There are several months waiting for an appointment with a pediatric cardiologist. It also happens that already in February the pool of places for the whole year is exhausted and one has to wait for a visit.
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Expensive equipment needed
For operations on complex heart defects, hybrid operating theaters are best, allowing you to perform one procedure instead of several. These are super-equipped rooms that allow you to carry out diagnostics and various types of treatments at one time and place. Without such a possibility, subsequent operations must be performed in a multi-stage treatment. Each of them carries a certain risk, so the fewer of them, the better. In addition, hybrid surgeries mean shorter hospitalization time, less suffering, increased chances of treatment success, shorter waiting times for surgery and faster rehabilitation. In such a room, both minimally invasive procedures and open heart surgeries are performed at the same time, thanks to which both the heart and blood vessels can be treated. There are several of them in Poland. The most modern one was opened at the University Children’s Hospital in Krakow.
Tax percentage helps
The investment in Krakow, worth PLN 5 million, is financed from one percent of the tax donated to the Radio ZET Foundation. – My dream is coming true – says professor Janusz Skalski, head of the Department of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery. – I can say that our clinic will have the most modern operating room in Europe for the treatment of heart defects in children. This is a great merit of the Radio ZET Foundation and I will always be grateful to them, together with my patients, – he adds. About 400 cardiac surgeries are performed annually in the Krakow hospital.
The hybrid room has been equipped with, among others with an integrated two-plane angiograph that allows you to perform intravascular procedures. The purchased medical equipment will enable precise and thus even more effective diagnosis and operation of children with the most severe heart defects. The University Children’s Hospital in Krakow will be able to carry out more operations during the year. It will also be possible to perform complex neurosurgical, orthopedic and general surgery procedures in the hybrid room.
Tekst: Halina of Pilon