| January 11, 2010 | Media contact: Shantell Kirkendoll E-mail: smkirk@umich.edu Phone: 734-764-2220 |
U-M Congenital Heart Center hosts Tweet chat on heart defect surgeries
Parents and the public can ask pediatric heart specialists questions about correcting the most common severe heart birth defect
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The public, including parents of babies with severe heart defects, is invited to submit questions for inclusion in a tweet chat about surgical approaches for heart defects from noon-2 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 20 on Twitter.
New research by the University of Michigan Congenital Heart Center shows infants born with a severely underdeveloped heart are more likely to survive to their first birthday when treated with a new shunt procedure – yet it may not be the safest surgery long term.
John C. Charpie, M.D., Ph.D., head of the Division of Pediatric Cardiology and Richard G. Ohye, M.D., head of the Division of Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery at the U-M Congenital Heart Center, will answer submitted questions.
Ohye was lead author of a featured study recently presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions that compared surgeries for infant heart defects.
Babies born with a critically underdeveloped left side of their hearts require three surgeries to correct the problem. A portion of the first operation, the Norwood Procedure, includes a connection to deliver blood from the heart to the pulmonary arteries feeding the lungs so that blood can pick up oxygen.
Parents can ask about the results of a one a first-of-its-kind 15-center trial by the Pediatric Heart Network that compared a new modification of the Norwood using a right ventricle to pulmonary artery shunt to connect the functioning right ventricle to the pulmonary artery, to a traditional version of the shunt procedure.
Each shunt procedure has theoretical advantages, but physicians previously didn’t have hard evidence about which option to choose.
To participate, you must first have a Twitter account. To submit your questions for inclusion in the chat, first follow UMHealthSystem on Twitter, if you are not already doing so, then direct message your questions in 140 characters or less to @UMHealthSystem by Jan. 19.
Depending on the volume of questions, there may not be enough time to answer all questions received, though every effort will be made to do so.
To follow or participate the chat, log in to Twitter.com or Tweetchat.com using your Twitter log-in information, about five minutes before the chat is to begin and search for the hash tag #heartdefectschat. Please include this hash tag in all your related tweets for the duration of the chat.
A transcript of the chat will be posted online at www.med.umich.edu/mott/chc/tweet.html.
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Written by Shantell M. Kirkendoll
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