Blue baby syndrome

Blue-baby syndrome, or blue baby is usually caused by a heart defect which laymen often call "a hole in the heart". The foramen ovale is an aperture between the walls of the right and left atrium in the fetus that allows the blood too cross the atria and help in bypass pulmonary blood circulation.

A cyanotic newborn, or "blue baby".

Diagram showing normal blood circulation (above) and the blood circulation in a defective heart.

Overview

In normal cases, this aperture closes in the babies after birth. However, in the case of an abnormality, this aperture does not close, resulting in the bypass to continue, which is not needed after the baby starts breathing on its own. ^[1]

Normally, oxygenated blood from the lungs is separated from deoxygenated blood from other tissues. Because of the defect in the heart ventricular-atrial wall, deoxygenated blood sometimes mixes with the blood from the lungs. The resulting blood going through the aorta has less oxygen than usual. The baby then looks blue.

Treatment

An operation is usually done to close the aperture resulting in a normal flow of the blood. There are several heart defects which produce this syndrome. There are also some causes which are not related to heart conditions.

History

On November 29, 1944, the first successful operation for the heart condition was done at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.^[2] In 1976, the university awarded the surgeon an honorary doctorate.^[3]