2011 Group Project 6: Difference between revisions

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* Repairs the ventricular septal defect using a patch to cover the hole in the septum.
* Repairs the ventricular septal defect using a patch to cover the hole in the septum.


Fixing these two defects also solves the other two defects (the hypertrophy of the right ventricle wall).
Fixing these two defects also solves the other two defects (the hypertrophy of the right ventricle wall and provides oxygenated blood to the aorta).


Surgery is carried out during infancy, the incision heals in roughly 6 weeks.
Surgery is carried out during infancy, the incision heals in roughly 6 weeks.

Revision as of 11:46, 1 September 2011

Note - This page is an undergraduate science embryology student group project 2011.
2011 Projects: Turner Syndrome | DiGeorge Syndrome | Klinefelter's Syndrome | Huntington's Disease | Fragile X Syndrome | Tetralogy of Fallot | Angelman Syndrome | Friedreich's Ataxia | Williams-Beuren Syndrome | Duchenne Muscular Dystrolphy | Cleft Palate and Lip



Tetralogy of Fallot

Introduction

History

In 1671, Niels Stenson was the first to describe Tetralogy of Fallot anatomically. However, the precise descriptions of the anatomy of Tetralogy of Fallot was done in 1784 by William Hunter at St Georges Hospital Medical School in London. His description is as follows[PMID: 19683809]:


“…the passage from the right ventricle into the pulmonary artery, which should have admitted a finger, was not so wide as a goose quill; and there was a hole in the partition of the two ventricles, large enough to pass the thumb from one to the other. The greatest part of the blood in the right ventricle was driven with that of the left ventricle into the aorta, or great artery, and so lost all the advantage which it ought to have had from breathing”[PMID: 19683809]


Hunter’s description of the defected heart’s anatomy along with its resulting physiology was further specified and advanced by Etienne-Louis Fallot. However it was Maude Abbott from Canada who coined the term ‘Tetralogy of Fallot’ in 1924. The first procedures for Tetralogy of Fallot were around from the 1950s. Due the advances in the areas of ‘diagnosis, perioperative and surgical treatment and postoperative care’, children born with Tetralogy of Fallot now have a great chance to survive to adulthood[PMID: 19683809]

In retrospective studies it shows how surgical procedures have improved because in the 1950’s to today’s times, the mortality rate from surgery dropped from 50% to less than 2%. It was in 1945 that Blalock and Taussig explained the ‘systemic artery-to-pulmonary artery shunt’ and in 1954 that Varco and Lillehei repaired a TOF heart whilst doing a open-heart surgery.[PMID: 21251297]

During such surgeries in the past the surgeons will actually now put a shunt between the pulmonary artery and a systemic artery of a child with Tetralogy of Fallot as this will allow some improvement to the oxygenation of the blood in the infant. It will be later when the individual grows up that the shunt will be removed then the heart will be repaired. Now surgeons prefer to repair the heart in the initial operation to repair the infants heart. [PMID: 21048055]

Epidemiology

Signs and Symptoms

Genetics/Aetiology

Pathophysiology and Abnormalities

Diagnostic Tests

Treatment/Management

Tetralogy of fallot can only be treated with open heart surgery, the goal of this is to be able to treat the four congenital abnormailties.

The surgeon:

  • Widens the narrowed pulmonary blood vessels and the pulmonary valve itself, hence allowing for greater blood flow to the lungs.
  • Repairs the ventricular septal defect using a patch to cover the hole in the septum.

Fixing these two defects also solves the other two defects (the hypertrophy of the right ventricle wall and provides oxygenated blood to the aorta).

Surgery is carried out during infancy, the incision heals in roughly 6 weeks.

Prognosis

Future Directions

Glossary

References


2011 Projects: Turner Syndrome | DiGeorge Syndrome | Klinefelter's Syndrome | Huntington's Disease | Fragile X Syndrome | Tetralogy of Fallot | Angelman Syndrome | Friedreich's Ataxia | Williams-Beuren Syndrome | Duchenne Muscular Dystrolphy | Cleft Palate and Lip