Keeping children with congenital heart disease healthy.
Keeping children with congenital heart disease healthy is vital to their long-term survival and quality of life. Nurse practitioners are in an excellent position to keep these sometimes fragile children healthy before, between, and after their cardiac surgeries. Primary care visits should address developmental morbidity. Referral for in-depth evaluations and intervention should be initiated for children with hemodynamically significant heart disease. Infants may also experience poor feeding. Nutritional guidance may include fortifying formulas or enteral tube feedings. Attention to immunization status and prevention of winter illnesses and endocarditis may reduce complications in this high-risk group of children.
University of Texas Health Science Center–San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA. woodwardc@uthscsa.edu
Cathy S
CS
Woodward
D000293:Adolescent; D002317:Cardiovascular Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006128:Growth; D006293:Health Promotion; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000145:classification / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007115:Immunization Schedule; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn
D002317:Cardiovascular Agents