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转自 http://www.mayoclinic.org/patientstories/story-27.html
Jim Wong
Surgery Successfully Repairs Complications From a 40-Year-Old Congenital Heart Defect
Jim Wong thought he was the picture of health. He ate well and exercised regularly. Aside from allergies, he had no health complaints.
So when Jim began experiencing an irregular heart rhythm (called arrhythmia), his physician attributed the problem to an antihistamine and suggested he stop using the medication. This appeared to end the arrhythmia. But it was a temporary solution.
"After several years, I started experiencing arrhythmia again," Jim explains. "My physician could find no reason for the irregularity. It was a mystery."
Revisiting an Old Problem
He lived with the mystery until February 2002, when an extended period of arrhythmia sent him to the emergency room.
"My heart started racing and wouldn't quit," says Jim, a senior adviser for Hitachi who was in Singapore on a business trip at the time. "I went to the emergency room and was hospitalized for 10 days."
When he returned home to California, Jim underwent testing, which confirmed he did, in fact, have heart problems. And they weren't new.
Jim was born with Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart defect that results in decreased blood flow to the lungs. Like many people with congenital heart defects, he thought the corrective surgery he had as a child had cured him. But for people who have congenital heart defects, there is no such thing as a cure.
"Every single person born with a congenital heart defect needs lifelong follow-up care," says Carole Warnes, M.D., a cardiologist and director of the Adult Congenital Heart Disease Clinic at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "And that care needs to come from someone who is trained specifically in this field."
Coming Back to Mayo Clinic
Jim decided to come to Mayo for a second opinion. His early childhood was spent in Minnesota, and it was a Mayo Clinic surgeon who performed the operation that repaired his initial heart defect.
Jim was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot more than 40 years ago. As the time neared for him to begin kindergarten, it became clear that without surgery he would not have the strength to attend school.
John Kirklin, M.D., a Mayo Clinic cardiac surgeon, determined Jim was a good candidate for surgery and successfully repaired his heart defect. For a few years, Jim had regular appointments with pediatric cardiologists at Mayo. Then his family moved to California and thought his heart problems were as far behind them as Minnesota winters.
"After surgery, I was a healthy kid," says Jim. "I played tennis competitively in high school. As a young adult, I did a lot of biking. I had absolutely no idea I was still having problems related to my heart defect."
But as is common in patients who have surgery to correct Tetralogy of Fallot and other heart defects, two of Jim's heart valves were leaking. While the body can tolerate the leaks for years without many symptoms, eventually the blood flowing back through the valves causes the heart to become enlarged.
When Jim returned to Mayo Clinic in October 2002, he met with Heidi Connolly, M.D., a cardiologist who cares for patients at the Adult Congenital Heart Disease Clinic. Dr. Connolly confirmed the earlier diagnosis of leaky tricuspid and pulmonary valves, and also found an additional problem. A cordlike tendon (called a chordae) enabling one of the leaflets in Jim's valve to open and close was not functioning.
In reviewing Dr. Kirklin's surgical notes, Dr. Connolly found that the initial repair required severing the chordae to fix the original problem. Testing also led Dr. Connolly to suspect that Jim had a small hole in his heart. Fortunately, all problems could be repaired with surgery.
Less than one month after meeting with Dr. Connolly, Jim was scheduled for surgery with Hartzell Schaff, M.D., a Mayo cardiovascular surgeon. Dr. Schaff repaired Jim's tricuspid valve, replaced his pulmonary valve, closed a tiny hole in his heart, reattached the severed leaflet chordae, and completed a procedure to decrease the likelihood of later rhythm problems.
The results were apparent soon after his surgery. "I was up and walking the day after surgery, and left the hospital after six days," he says. "It was amazing. Within three months, I was back on the golf course, carrying my own clubs and feeling better than ever."
[ 本帖最后由 EmmaMom 于 2008-4-3 18:59 编辑 ] |
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