Dr . Charles E . Simmons , III , M . D .
By Dr . Charles E . Simmons , III , M . D . Simmons Pediatrics , Jacksonville , FL Assisted By Dominique D . Barrs Medical Student
Charles Simmons Pediatrics Dominique D . Barrs Blue Baby Syndrome Jacksonville , Florida June 2014
If you have seen the movie , " Something the Lord Made ," an HBO film , then you were informally introduced to the topic at hand we call Blue Baby Syndrome . This movie tells the story about a white surgeon named Alfred Blalock , and a black carpenter turned lab technician , Vivien Thomas , who on November 29 , 1944 , successfully performed a heart surgery which included connecting arteries .
Blue Baby Syndrome is when a baby is born with a congenital cardiac or pulmonary defect , which is a result of cyanosis , a blueness or lividness of the skin that causes incomplete oxygenation of the blood . Red indicates oxygenated blood , and blue indicates deoxygenated blood , so when the skin has a bluish tint , it indicates oxygen deprivation . This can be caused by two scenarios , one in which includes a right-to-left or bidirectional shunting , or malposition of the great arteries . In this case , the oxygen-poor blood from the body may be " shunted " from the right side of the heart , across an opening into the left side of the heart where there is oxygen-rich blood . Another instance that may cause Blue Baby Syndrome is when the deoxygenated blood , which should enter the lung to become oxygenated , bypasses the lungs and enters the systemic circulation . When this happens , the tissues and organs in the body become oxygen deprived Doctors may create a right-to-left shunt in a baby with no cross-circulation between the left side of the heart and the right side to allow some oxygenated blood to flow throughout the heart . This may be a temporary fix until heart surgery can be performed .
A baby with bluish tint skin , nails , lips , or tongue may be the more obvious sign of this syndrome , but there are other common symptoms that may alert you to take your baby in for tests and observations . Fatigue is a great indicator . If your baby because exhausted after crying spells or feeding , or normal activity , this can be a sign . Or if the adverse effect of a baby not being able to feed , or suck , or quickness of breath , there can be serious complications . Poor weight gain and a heart murmur are also good warning signs . If a child exhibits any of these signs of having a Cyanotic heart defect , tests will be conducted by the physician . These tests will help to determine which of the five congenital diseases caused the Blue Baby and that will determine which treatment to be prescribed . Tetralogy of Fallot ( ToF ), Transposition of the great arteries ( TGA ), Total anomalous pulmonary venous return ( TAPVR ), Truncus arteriosus , and Tricuspid atresia , are the Five T ' s that cause Blue Baby Syndrome . Tetralogy of Fallot ( ToF ) is a congenital heart defect that is the most common cause of Blue Baby Syndrome . It involves four anatomical abnormalities of the heart . This is the cause of the syndrome that was in the patient of Blalock and Thomas .
Blue Baby Syndrome was once thought untreatable until surgeon Alfred Blalock , assistant Vivien Thomas , and cardiologist Helen Taussig developed a surgical procedure to connect the artery leaving the heart to an artery leading to the lung to give the blood a second chance at oxygenation . This was the first successful Blue Baby operation which allowed this complication to become treatable and successful .