What Is Ebsteins Anomaly?
Statistics show that only one in every 210,000 live births gets to suffer from Ebsteins anomaly. This condition has an equal ratio for both females and males. It’s a condition that is hard to detect and its symptoms are noticeable at any age. Patients who suffer from this condition are hard to notice from the first look. Severe symptoms may be seen at an early age while minor problems may hide the symptoms till the teenage age. This is a very rare disease that involves the hearts right side. It’s a condition that may affect Caucasians as research suggests.
What is Ebsteins Anomaly?
Ebsteins anomaly is generally congenital malformation. This is a disorder that happens when the tricuspid valve that divides the two chambers of the heart doesn’t make a normal formation. What happens is that the tricuspid valve forms far the down the ventricle, hence making the ventricle to grow weaker and even smaller than its normal size. It involves one half of the tricuspid valve getting stuck on one side of the ventricle. This may in turn cause blood to move or leak on the wrong direction.
Symptoms and signs may include;
1. Due to the tricuspid valve causing leakage or backflow of blood to the rest of the body, swelling may happen on the belly and legs.
2. Difficulties in breathing to liver enlargement. Leakages causes mixing of both deoxygenated and oxygenated blood that flows to the rest of the body.
3. Blue coloring of the lips and fingers this is referred to as cyanosis.
4. It’s believed to cause strokes and brain tremors and damage of brain tissue. This happens when blood clots flow to left ventricle.
5. Causes unrhythmic heartbeats that result to dizziness or even fainting. Abnormal heartbeat may cause a victim to fall short of breath for some time.
Whats Causes this Disease?
It is believed to be genetically inherited or caused by environmental aspects that have yet to be proven by research. But research is doing its best to give answers to all this questions.
Whats The Treatment for This Condition?
The treatment is dependent on defection of the heart and normally for mild cases certain kinds of surgery may be required and also antibiotics may be administered. In some cases, if too much blood back flows to the left ventricle certain medications can also be administered that prevent strokes and heart failure.
In critical conditions surgery may be done to either repair or replace the tricuspid valve this ensures there’s no back flow of blood through the atria. Surgery can help to repair right ventricle counter parts too.
Unrhythmic heartbeats can also be corrected during the surgery by getting rid of the muscle that causes the strain. High energized radio waves can also be used to get rid of smaller parts that constitute the muscle.
The outcome of this condition will depend on how early the symptoms and signs occur. So the earlier, the better. This is dependent on how the valve is leaking. It’s estimated that for those young children who receive diagnosis at a tender age of about one year the results turn out to be good. In fact they leave very normal lives.