Heart surgeons who operate on infants by cooling their bodies and stopping their hearts may be exposing the babies to increased risks of developmental problems, according to a new study.
The study, to be published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, found the technique poses a heightened risk of developmental problems and brain-related abnormalities than the alternative of using a machine to bypass the heart and keep the blood flowing through the body during surgery.The longer the heart remains stopped, the greater the risk, according to the researchers, led by David Bellinger of the Harvard School of Public Health.
The team examined 171 babies in need of heart surgery because their two major arteries - those leading to the lungs and other parts of the body - were reversed.
Without surgery, about one third of such babies die within a week after birth and 90 percent are dead within a year.
To avoid having to operate on a constantly beating heart, doctors need to safely stop the heart during surgery.
Bypassing the heart with a special heart-lung machine is one method. But patients can also survive for limited time periods if their hearts are stopped and their bodies cooled below normal temperatures. It seems to work best in children.