Key Points Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a common birth defect with continually improving survival of neonates with complex lesions requiring heart surgery. Neurodevelopmental (ND) abnormalities are common in school-age children and adolescents after neonatal heart surgery. Magnetic resonance imaging…
Key Points The term supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) encompasses several different arrhythmias that may have different diagnostic and therapeutic requirements. Tachycardia mechanisms may be caused by conduction reentry, enhanced automaticity, or triggered automaticity. Isolated atrial and ventricular ectopy is common in…
Key Points Clinical signs of a symptomatic patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) usually appear later than echocardiographic signs and are related to the degree of left-to-right ductal shunting. Factors known to play a prominent role in regulation of ductal patency involve…
Key Points Persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN) can occur with parenchymal lung disease, with pulmonary hypoplasia, or without associated lung disease ( idiopathic ) and has an incidence of 0.2% in term infants and up to 2% in…
Key Points It is difficult to diagnose neonatal shock in its uncompensated phase during the immediate transitional period, while it is even harder to diagnose neonatal shock in its compensated phase using standard clinical monitoring and clinical approach. It is…
Key Points The heart forms from cardiac mesoderm as a symmetric linear tube with connections to the primitive arterial and venous systems. The heart tube is formed by 3 weeks’ gestation in the human. The heart tube loops, establishing laterality,…
Key Points Prompt diagnosis and early intervention are key in salvaging infants with life-threatening surgical disorders of the airway and chest. Improved prenatal ultrasound has shifted the diagnosis and management of disorders of the chest and airways into the fetal…
Key Points Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), as determined near term corrected age in former preterm newborns < 32 weeks’ gestational age is a marker for chronic respiratory morbidity. Newborns that are most immature and those born from an adverse intrauterine environment,…
Key Points Marked hypoxemia in the newborn can be caused by parenchymal lung disease, pulmonary vascular disease, or congenital heart defects. Events occurring at delivery, as well as the response to supplemental oxygen and to continuous positive airway pressure, can…
Key Points Apnea of prematurity is universal in preterm infants and a manifestation of greater inhibitory (rather than excitatory) influences on the central respiratory network. In premature infants, excitation of peripheral arterial chemoreceptors by hypoxia predisposes to periodic breathing and…