These are the most common complications after pediatric heart procedure:

• Increased risk of infection during healing after procedure
• Trouble feeding in infants
• Increased risk of a heart rhythm disorder in certain heart defects

Infection: Procedure and central venous lines carry a higher risk of infection. We will use rigorous care techniques to help minimize your child's chances of infection.

Learning how to eat: Babies with congenital heart disease often require procedure in the first week of life — a very important time when babies are learning how to eat. Our feeding team helps those babies learn and addresses those issues related to vocal cord dysfunction that might make it hard for them to eat.

Heart rhythm disorders: Some types of heart disease cause children to have problems with the rhythm of their heart beat (arrhythmia). Some will need to go home on medication, and in extreme cases some children may require placement of a pacemaker to help calm a bad rhythm. Our electrophysiology team is made up of board certified experts who help guide decisions regarding our patients with rhythm concerns.

We encourage family involvement in every stage of each child's care. For those children who need a heart procedure or heart catheter, we meet with them in advance to discuss the procedure and encourage families to review our outcomes, ask questions, tour our facility, and meet our team. Should your child need to be cared for in the hospital, we ask families to participate in daily check-ins with the inpatient care teams.

We will make sure that the families, pediatricians, and cardiologists have all the information they need and are comfortable with what they understand of a child's needs for treatment and follow-up when that child is ready to go home.

If your baby needs a heart procedure, we care for your child in our Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) at our hospital. When your baby's condition is stable enough for less intensive monitoring, they will be moved to the Cardiac Progressive Care Unit (CPCU), which is also directly staffed by specialized cardiac nurses and cardiology physicians.

In our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), babies who are born prematurely or who have other abnormalities in their organ systems can receive care under the careful monitoring of the cardiology team.

The life expectancy and possibly additional heart interventions that the child may need depend largely on their heart anatomy and the kind of repair necessary. Some may also have other health challenges that are not related to the heart defect.

Overall, outcomes for children with heart disease have improved significantly. For young adults and adults with congenital heart disease, Tender Palm Hospital's Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program offers specialized care. Our goal is to provide lifelong support to your child.

Like any children without heart defects, some children might require extra assistance at school or certain adaptive exercise programs. As a team, we seek to treat your child more like a person rather than a patient, so their heart defect doesn't define their life.

Yes! Flu vaccination is essential. A yearly flu vaccination can prevent severe influenza (flu) infection complications. The vaccine changes every year, so an annual vaccination is recommended. Certain patients, such as those with egg allergy, flu vaccine allergy, or immune-compromised patients (transplant recipients), should not receive a flu vaccination.

Fainting or syncope is a relatively common experience. It often occurs as one stands up or makes a positional change, such as moving from sitting to standing. The most common type of fainting –vasodepressor or vasovagal syncope– is caused by a disturbance in heart rhythm, blood pressure, and blood flow to the brain, leading to sudden lapse into unconsciousness. Typical scenarios for common fainting are standing in line, standing in church, standing up in the shower, and using the toilet. Rarely a severe heart problem causes fainting. Fainting during sports or intense exercise is a different story and may be caused by a heart problem. A cardiologist should evaluate fainting during sports or intense exercise. To prevent ordinary fainting spells, fluid intake can be increased, extra salt consumed in the diet, and caffeine should be avoided generally.

Over the last year, universal screening for critical congenital heart disease has been recommended and endorsed by the American Heart Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The congenital heart disease screening test is a "pulse oximetry" test at 24 hours of life before newborn babies are discharged from the nursery. The pulse oximetry test is non-invasive with a band-aid-like probe wrapped around the baby's hand and foot to measure oxygen levels. An abnormal pulse oximetry screen may indicate heart or lung disease needing more extensive medical evaluation. Pulse oximetry testing will not detect all types of congenital heart disease. Still, pulse oximetry screening can help the pediatrician or family doctor together with a standard newborn physical examination before discharge from the nursery.

The population of adults with congenital heart disease, or heart defects people have since they were born, is increasing at a fast rate. Most adults had operations or other interventions as children and think they are "cured". With advances in medical and surgical care, it is believed that the proportion of adults living with congenital heart disease is the same, if not greater, than the proportion of children living with congenital heart disease. Fewer than 10 percent of adults with congenital heart disease in the United States who require specialty care are receiving recommended care from a specialty adult congenital heart disease specialty center.

Pediatric hospitals are opening more specialty intensive care units (ICU) that specialize in the care of infants, children and adults with heart problems. Members of the cardiac ICU include intensive care physicians, cardiologists, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, and nurses with special expertise in the care of neonatal, pediatric and adult congenital heart problems. The cardiac ICU is often a different ICU than the pediatric ICU (PICU) or neonatal ICU (NICU). Patients in the cardiac ICU can range from newborns with newly diagnosed heart disease to adults with congenital heart disease.