Blue baby syndrome

Image:Cyanotic neonate.jpg Blue baby syndrome (or simply, blue baby) is a layman's term used to describe newbornswith cyanoticconditions, such as:

• Cyanotic heart defects
  • Tetralogy of Fallot
  • Dextro-Transposition of the great arteries
  • Hypoplastic left heart syndrome
• Methemoglobinemia

On November 29, 1944, the Johns Hopkins Hospitalwas the first to successfully perform an operation to relieve this syndrome. Drs. Alfred Blalock, Helen B. Taussig, and Vivien Thomasperformed an anastomosis, or joining, of the subclavian arteryto the pulmonary arteryin a cyanotic child, allowing the blood another chance to become oxygenated. The procedure is now known as a Blalock-Taussig shunt.

External links

• Blue Baby Operation
• Something the Lord Made - HBO Movie on the Blue Baby Surgery

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue+baby+syndrome Wikipedia article Blue baby syndrome.