By: Shaun Setty, M.D., medical director, Pediatric & Adult Congenital Cardiac Surgery, Pediatric Heart Center, Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach
Yes, adults can have kids’ heart problems.
Many adults are going about their daily lives suffering because they are unaware that they are living with a congenital heart defect. There are more than 750,000 adults living with a congenital heart defect in the United States. This could be because many adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) may not be getting proper follow-up care after correctional surgery they had when they were a child, or they were misdiagnosed when they were younger because they never showed any symptoms.
A congenital heart defect is an abnormality in a person’s heart structure that they’re born with.
Although congenital heart disease is generally associated with children, advances in surgical treatment means most babies who would have once died of congenital heart disease now survive well into adulthoodliving with their CHD.
There are several reasons as to why congenital heart defects come back into the lives of some adults.
In some cases, treatment received in childhood may have been successful, but as the heart grows and develops the structures may change causing the original defect to resurface. With the complexity of the repairs performed today in infants, lifelong surveillance is needed in these patients. It’s also possible that heart problems weren’t caught or serious enough to repair during childhood, but have now worsened and require treatment.
Common signs of adult congenital heart defect symptoms are:
- Abnormal heart rhythms
- A bluish tint to the skin
- Shortness of breath
- Tiring quickly upon exertion
- Dizziness or fainting
- Swelling of body tissue or organs
Risk factors in causing congenital heart defects are:
- German measles: If a person’s mother had German measles while pregnant, this can affect a person’s heart development.
- Diabetes: If a person’s mother had Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, it may have interfered with the development of their heart.
- Medications: Taking certain medications or drinking alcohol while pregnant is known to cause birth defects, including congenital heart defects.
- Heredity: Congenital heart disease appears to run in families and is associated with many genetic syndromes.
Even if someone had a procedure to correct their defect when they were younger, there are other issues that can occur later in life. Many treatments to repair heart defects may leave scar tissue behind in a person’s heart that causes an increased chance of abnormal heart rhythm.
Treatment is based on the severity of the congenital heart disease. Some mild heart defects do not require any treatment. Others can be treated with medications or surgery. Most adults with congenital heart disease should be monitored by a CHD heart specialist and may need to take precautions to prevent an infection of the heart throughout their life.
If you or anyone you know presents signs of a congenital heart defect, call your doctor as you may require a cardiologist.
MillerChildrens.org/Heart | (855) 999-MCH1 (6241)