Blue baby syndrome
Blue baby syndrome (or simply, blue baby) is a layman's term used to describe newborns with cyanotic heart lesions, such as
- Persistent Truncus Arteriosus
- Transposition of the great vessels
- Tricuspid atresia
- Tetralogy of Fallot[1]
- Total anomalous pulmonary venous connection
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[edit] Other causes
A sort of "blue baby syndrome" can also be caused by Methemoglobinemia[2][3] . It is believed to be caused by high nitrate contamination in ground water resulting in decreased oxygen carrying capacity of hemoglobin in babies leading to death. The groundwater is thought to be contaminated by leaching of nitrate generated from fertilizer used in agricultural lands and waste dumps.[4] It may also be related to some pesticides (DDT, PCBs etc), which cause ecotoxicological problems in the food chains of living organisms, increasing BOD, which kills aquatic animals.
Other insults in neonates, such as respiratory distress syndrome, can also produce a "blue baby syndrome," although like methemoglobinemia, these are not structural lesions and are not regarded by most doctors as true "cyanotic lesions."
[edit] Surgery
On November 29, 1944, the Johns Hopkins Hospital was the first to successfully perform an operation to relieve Tetralogy of Fallot.[5] The syndrome was brought to the attention of surgeon Alfred Blalock and his laboratory assistant Vivien Thomas in 1943 by pediatric cardiologist Helen Taussig, who had treated hundreds of children with Tetralogy of Fallot in her work at Hopkins' Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children. The two men adapted a surgical procedure they had earlier developed for another purpose, involving the anastomosis, or joining, of the subclavian artery to the pulmonary artery, which allowed the blood another chance to become oxygenated. The procedure became known as the Blalock-Taussig shunt, although in recent years the contribution of Vivien Thomas, both experimentally and clinically, has been widely acknowledged.
[edit] References
- ^ "Hopkins pioneered 'blue baby' surgery 50 years ago 'I Remember ... Thinking It Was Impossible'". http://www.jhu.edu/gazette/aprjun95/may3095/30blue.html. Retrieved 2008-03-24.
- ^ "Blue baby links - 11 February 2006 - New Scientist". http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18925380.200-blue-baby-links.html. Retrieved 2008-03-24.
- ^ "Blue Baby Syndrome". http://www.ecifm.rdg.ac.uk/bluebabs.htm. Retrieved 2008-03-24.
- ^ "The Blue Baby Syndrome". http://www.springerlink.com/content/p2617714686806w6/.
- ^ Thomas, Vivien T. (1998). Partners of the Heart: Vivien Thomas and His Work With Alfred Blalock. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0812216342.
[edit] External links
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