Neonatal heart surgery, life-saving operation in Castellammare

A delicate intervention by cneonatal heart surgery for the ligation of the ductus arteriosus of Botallo was performed yesterday (3 April 2024) at the complex neonatalology and neonatal intensive care unit, directed by Dr. Roberto Cinelli, of the hospital San Leonardo of Castellammare di StabiaASL Napoli 3 Sud general director Giuseppe Russo.

The cardiac surgery-anaesthesiology team has arrived to support the doctors from Stabia of the Colli hospital in Naples coordinated by Professor Guido Oppido, director of pediatric cardiac surgery, who carried out the operation in the neonatal intensive care unit of San Leonardo.

The Botallo duct is an arterial blood vessel which, during the fetal phase, guarantees the life of the baby in utero through a flow of blood between the pulmonary vein and the arch of the aorta. After birth, this vessel closes allowing the passage from fetal to neonatal circulation. In severely premature babies, however, this sometimes does not happen and the patent Botallo duct can create serious problems with the circulation of the small newborn, causing reduced perfusion of the organs and heart failure.

The treatment of this condition is usually medical, with the carrying out of therapeutic cycles with paracetamol and ibuprofen and, only in case of failure of these therapies, cardiac surgery is resorted to. The little patient, firstborn of a young 23 year old mother, was born about twenty days ago at 28 weeks of gestational age and today weighs just 1,210 grams. The operation was technically successful, although we had to wait for the post-operative period to definitively resolve the prognosis. Thanks from the director of the Stabiese garrison Massimo Maiolo to the Monaldi team led by Professor Oppido.

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