The Hospital 12 de Octubre intervenes each year to over 150 children with heart disease congenital.
this Community Center has been designated as reference national for the comprehensive care of this infant pathology.
-More than 30 per cent of paediatric patient seized are infants
-the year is an average of 5,000 queries and 250 procedures and interventions to children
Madrid, 2011-January the Institute paediatric in the heart of the Hospital Universitario 12 October involved more than 150 pediatric patients a year with congenital heart diseases68 per cent of whom are less than a year and a 33 per cent of them infants. This hospital, which has been designated as a national focal point for the integral care of congenital heart disease in infant and child in the last Council Interterritorial of the Ministry of health, held last December, today received the visit of the Minister of health, Javier Fernández-Lasquetty.
Comprehensive assistance includes diagnosis and early treatment of the congenital heart disease, which is possible thanks to the Hospital 12 de Octubre has different units ranging from the detection of the disease in the fetus, to treatment through surgery – including extracorporeal circulation – or interventionist procedures, such as catheterization.
The paediatric Heart Institute, composed of surgeons Pediatric cardiologists and cardiac children, became operational in 1997. Its objectives include the diagnosis and early treatment of congenital diseases; the scientific exchange with other national and international professionals; the collaboration with other related medical services, hospital patients and associations of parents and relatives, and the profitability of the material and human resources.
a disease that affects one of every 1,000 births
according to the scientific literature, the heart diseases affect nine of every 1,000 live births to term. Approximately half of them considered serious, since that required surgery in the first weeks of life, primarily because of its complexity or impact on the functioning of the rest of the body. They are responsible for 50 percent of all child deaths attributable to defects. That is why they are considered the most frequent serious birth defects.
Given its importance, over 150 professionals from October 12 participate in diagnosis and multidisciplinary treatment of this disease, benefiting a large number of patients under age from across the country. On average, performed annually in this Centre more than 5,000 consultations and almost 250 interventions and interventionist procedures in children with congenital heart diseases.
In this sense, the Hospital has a unit of Homodynamic child, launched in the year 2004, which is a pioneer in Spain and is equipped with equipment of last generation, whose features – biplane and digital – allow, for example, to obtain three-dimensional views and up to 30 images per second in the heart of the patients in real time. This makes possible a great precision in the medical practice, reducing the inconveniences related to the amount of contrast and recommended children radiation.
Diagnosis in fetuses by echocardiography
Hospital 12 de Octubre has also a unit of Fetal Medicine specializing in the detection of heart disease before birth.
This unit arrive each year approximately 360 pregnant women new to perform a fetal Echocardiogram, 40% coming from other autonomous communities. The follow-up of cases of congenital heart diseases detected in these pregnant women means that approximately 1,500 fetal ecocardiografÃas will score at the end of the year.
Fetal Medicine Unit is also national in the realization of valvuloplastias in fetuses, technical reference that allows to correct severe narrowing of the heart valves through dilation before birth. It’s a very complex procedure involving anaesthesia of the fetus inside the mother’s womb, while it remains awake, bearing in mind also that the size of his heart is less than a one euro coin.
In the diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart diseases in the neonate and child also involved other units, such as the Neonatology Service, anesthesia infant and pediatric intensive care unit. Multidisciplinary participation and expertise of these professionals has allowed to achieve the national benchmark for diagnosis and comprehensive treatment of congenital heart diseases in infants and children.
