Pulmonary Atresia

Pulmonary atresia is a heart defect present at birth (congenital) that's normally diagnosed within the first few hours or days of life. In pulmonary atresia, the valve that lets blood out of the heart to go to your baby's lungs doesn't form correctly. Instead of opening and closing to allow blood to travel from your heart to your lungs, a solid sheet of tissue forms. Blood from the right side of your baby's heart can't go back to the lungs to pick up oxygen.Pulmonary atresia may occur with or without a ventricular septal defect (VSD).

 Bluish colored skin (cyanosis), Fast breathing, Fatigue, Poor eating habits (babies may get tired while nursing or sweat during feedings), Shortness of breath.he temporary measure, which has to be taken in new-borns with pulmonary atresia, is usually given an intravenous drug (injected into a vein) called prostaglandin E1 to prevent the ductus arteriosus from closing. Blood can flow from the right side of the heart to the left side and pass through the left ventricle to the lungs to pick up oxygen by keeping the ductus arteriosus open. Cardiac catheterization is used to diagnose heart problems, It can also be used to enlarge the opening in the septum.

Disease Statistics of pulmonary atresia around France got the result as there were 8 deaths (17%). Complete repair was performed in 24 patients (18 in group III and 6 in group IV) with 79.3% had a right/left ventricular pressure <0.5, 16; 5%<1 and 4.2%>1. Eleven patients are waiting for complete repair and 4 will be operated on pulmonary arteries.  Among patients having had a complete repair and showing a right/left ventricular pressure <0.5, 88.9% had a pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect type III and 50% a pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect type IV. Only 56% of type III patients with a right/left ventricular pressure <0.5 had adequate central pulmonary arteries.