Glen Swan
Active member
Hello!
My wife gave birth to my first baby boy on January 25th, 2012 and was diagnosed with Coarctation of the Aorta and Bicuspid Aortic Valve 10 days later after hearing a small heart murmur during his first checkups. We checked into a top children's hospital after the echo and had the surgery to repair the narrowing in his aorta (CoA) soon therefore after with great success (4 hour operation, but told it only takes them about 20 minutes to snip up his narrowing and patch up the Aorta with no OHS!).
As new parents, this is pretty scary to be told that your son has two heart defects that need to be addressed. Learning more about Coarctation of the Aorta, I discovered it's highly fixable with a 98% or so success rate where those who have it repaired live long and healthy lives with little to no issues other than the complications of re-narrowing again or rare serious things (etc).
However, I feel kind of disappointed after reading up on the second defect that seems to have a 50% chance with all CoV babies, the Bicuspid Aortic Valve. Having not been told much about this by the docs because they were so focused on the CoA, I've discovered that BAV seems to cause issues as soon at age 20 to as late as ages 60. Although there is some time to worry about that later, I'm pretty sad that no one explained that eventually, my son may need OHS for this defect.
Now, I know there is good success rates out there for BAV surgeries and many people, especially in this community, have been the proof of that success. But, that doesn't stop me from wondering about the chances of complications with those with BAV? Does anyone have any statistics or resources that points to the chances that BAV will cause complications? I can't find much on the subject like if BAV has a 80% chance to cause complications sometime in your life and etc. All we were told by the docs is "may" cause issues later on, but nothing major to worry about now (vague answer to obviously keep us calm and focused on the issue they were fixing).
I can find little documentation on the percentages other than typical ages when complications become present and other resources that it's almost 100% that my son will have complications eventually. Any insight would be helpful, especially as we grow in knowledge with our son to keep him safe as well ready for anything thrown his way.
Thanks!
My wife gave birth to my first baby boy on January 25th, 2012 and was diagnosed with Coarctation of the Aorta and Bicuspid Aortic Valve 10 days later after hearing a small heart murmur during his first checkups. We checked into a top children's hospital after the echo and had the surgery to repair the narrowing in his aorta (CoA) soon therefore after with great success (4 hour operation, but told it only takes them about 20 minutes to snip up his narrowing and patch up the Aorta with no OHS!).
As new parents, this is pretty scary to be told that your son has two heart defects that need to be addressed. Learning more about Coarctation of the Aorta, I discovered it's highly fixable with a 98% or so success rate where those who have it repaired live long and healthy lives with little to no issues other than the complications of re-narrowing again or rare serious things (etc).
However, I feel kind of disappointed after reading up on the second defect that seems to have a 50% chance with all CoV babies, the Bicuspid Aortic Valve. Having not been told much about this by the docs because they were so focused on the CoA, I've discovered that BAV seems to cause issues as soon at age 20 to as late as ages 60. Although there is some time to worry about that later, I'm pretty sad that no one explained that eventually, my son may need OHS for this defect.
Now, I know there is good success rates out there for BAV surgeries and many people, especially in this community, have been the proof of that success. But, that doesn't stop me from wondering about the chances of complications with those with BAV? Does anyone have any statistics or resources that points to the chances that BAV will cause complications? I can't find much on the subject like if BAV has a 80% chance to cause complications sometime in your life and etc. All we were told by the docs is "may" cause issues later on, but nothing major to worry about now (vague answer to obviously keep us calm and focused on the issue they were fixing).
I can find little documentation on the percentages other than typical ages when complications become present and other resources that it's almost 100% that my son will have complications eventually. Any insight would be helpful, especially as we grow in knowledge with our son to keep him safe as well ready for anything thrown his way.
Thanks!
