What is Glenn Shunt?
Glenn shunt is one surgery that can be performed in children with congenital heart defects that have a single chamber profile. Usually this means that the right chamber or left chamber is much less than normal or disturbed by other ways and is unable to adequately pump blood into the body or lungs. Usually Glenn is considered to be a palliation because it does not correct the problem with small chambers, even if it can solve it for several years. In addition, surgery is often part of staging that leads to a more successful palliative surgery called Fontan. This is achieved by accepting Super Vena Cava, which returns blood to the heart for transit to the lungs and connect directly to the right pulmonary artery. Such a step creates a passive flow of blood into the lungs, completely bypassing the heart.
Initially, this surgery was part of the fontanese procedure that would also combine the lower vena cava to the superior vena cava, tunnel in the heart, so allBlood flow to the lungs has become a passive flow. The problem with the operation suddenly was that it tended to have a high incidence of creating unacceptable pulmonary pressure levels. Finally, the surgeons found that more success would be possible if the procedures were given instead, and then it could be determined whether the lung pressure after Glenn shunt was satisfactory to perform the second phase. It is not always and some children have only Glenn or Hemi-Fontan, as it was also called.
Another advantage of Glenn Shunt is that children can have this operation sooner, and this can help increase the oxygen saturation level earlier. For children, this is not unusual operations in the first three to six months of life, and for most it significantly improves the result. It is a better method for continuing to promote life than a short-circuit procedures, such as Shunt Blalock-Taussig (BT) or Norwood. Many children with one chamber will receive BT or Norwood, Glenn and finally completing Fontan.
As already mentioned, Glenn Shunt is PaliACE and the problem does not correct. In fact, most children with the profile of one chamber cannot be repaired. Since repair is not possible, redirectional is to release circulation for determination of adequate oxygen levels.
children with just Glenn or full fontan often require heart transplantation. Yet a significant improvement in repair and technology continues to prolong the life before it is necessary. Where these children once were routinely filed by the bleak survival statistics of the rate, now there are many people who live well in adulthood with the repair of Glenn and Fontan, and that is extremely promising.
It would be unfair to draw a fully pink picture of Glenn shunt. Some children are exerting extremely high pulmonary pressure after one of these procedures and may need them. Complications after surgery may include pericardial or pleural effusion, infection, high pulmonary pressure and more.
Death occurs in some operations, although the mortality rate of Glenn Shunt is low. Children with Glenn have the oneDefending "sat" or having oxygen saturation at a low 80 or lower years, and it can move to much lower energy than an average child, although not always. If fontan was possible, which could be done when children aged two or older, increased oxygen saturation then (80 and 90.) Often create a dynamic change in behavior and increased energy levels.