Patent ductus arteriosis (PDA) - series - Infant heart anatomyIndicationsProcedureAftercare

Patent ductus arteriosis (PDA) - series

Patent ductus arteriosis (PDA) - series - Infant heart anatomy

The heart pumps blood throughout the body. It is located in the thorax.

Patent ductus arteriosis (PDA) - series

Patent ductus arteriosis (PDA) - series - Infant heart anatomy

The heart pumps blood throughout the body. It is located in the thorax.

Patent ductus arteriosis (PDA) - series

Indications

The type and timing of surgical repair depends on the child's condition and the type and severity of heart defects.

In general, symptoms that indicate that surgery is needed are:

  • Difficulty breathing because the lungs are wet, congested, or fluid-filled (congestive heart failure)
  • Problems with heart rate or rhythm (arrhythmias)
  • Excessive work load on heart that interferes with breathing, feeding, or sleeping

Patent ductus arteriosis (PDA) - series

Indications

The type and timing of surgical repair depends on the child's condition and the type and severity of heart defects.In general, symptoms that indicate...

Read More

Patent ductus arteriosis (PDA) - series

Procedure

An incision may be made through the breastbone (sternum) and between the lungs (mediastinum) while the child is deep asleep and pain-free (under general anesthesia). For some heart defect repairs, the incision is made on the side of the chest, between the ribs (thoracotomy) instead of through the breastbone. Heart lung bypass is used to support the child during the procedure. Tubes are used to re-route the blood through a special pump that adds oxygen to the blood and keeps it warm and moving through the rest of the body while the repair is being done.

Patent ductus arteriosis (PDA) - series

Procedure

An incision may be made through the breastbone (sternum) and between the lungs (mediastinum) while the child is deep asleep and pain-free (under gene...

Read More

Patent ductus arteriosis (PDA) - series

Aftercare

Most children need to stay in the Intensive Care Unit for 3 to 7 days and stay in the hospital for 5 to 14 days. By the time the child is transferred out of the intensive care unit, most of the tubes and wires have been removed and they are encouraged to resume many of their daily activities. At the time of discharge, the parents are instructed on activity, how to care for the incision and how to give medications their child may need to take such as Digoxin, Lasix, Aldactone and Coumadin. The child needs at least several more weeks at home to recover.

Patent ductus arteriosis (PDA) - series

Aftercare

Most children need to stay in the Intensive Care Unit for 3 to 7 days and stay in the hospital for 5 to 14 days. By the time the child is transferred...

Read More

Review Date: 10/1/2025

Reviewed By: Thomas S. Metkus MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.

The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. No warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, is made as to the accuracy, reliability, timeliness, or correctness of any translations made by a third-party service of the information provided herein into any other language.

© 1997- A.D.A.M., a business unit of Ebix, Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.

All content on this site including text, images, graphics, audio, video, data, metadata, and compilations is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may view the content for personal, noncommercial use. Any other use requires prior written consent from Ebix. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, display, publish, reverse-engineer, adapt, modify, store beyond ordinary browser caching, index, mine, scrape, or create derivative works from this content. You may not use automated tools to access or extract content, including to create embeddings, vectors, datasets, or indexes for retrieval systems. Use of any content for training, fine-tuning, calibrating, testing, evaluating, or improving AI systems of any kind is prohibited without express written consent. This includes large language models, machine learning models, neural networks, generative systems, retrieval-augmented systems, and any software that ingests content to produce outputs. Any unauthorized use of the content including AI-related use is a violation of our rights and may result in legal action, damages, and statutory penalties to the fullest extent permitted by law. Ebix reserves the right to enforce its rights through legal, technological, and contractual measures.

Patent ductus arteriosis (PDA) - series - Infant heart anatomyIndicationsProcedureAftercare

Animations

Browse All

Illustrations

Browse All

Presentations

Browse All