Blue baby syndrome

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A cyanotic newborn, or "blue baby"
A cyanotic newborn, or "blue baby"

Blue baby syndrome (or simply, blue baby) is a layman's term used to describe newborns with cyanotic conditions, such as

[edit] Surgery

On November 29, 1944, the Johns Hopkins Hospital was the first to successfully perform an operation to relieve this syndrome.[4] The syndrome was brought to the attention of surgeon Alfred Blalock and his laboratory assistant Vivien Thomas in 1943 by pediatric cardiologist Helen Taussig, who had treated hundreds of children with Tetralogy of Fallot in her work at Hopkins' Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children. The two men adapted a surgical procedure they had earlier developed for another purpose, involving the anastomosis, or joining, of the subclavian artery to the pulmonary artery, which allowed the blood another chance to become oxygenated. The procedure became known as the Blalock-Taussig shunt, although in recent years the contribution of Vivien Thomas, both experimentally and clinically, has been widely acknowledged.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hopkins pioneered 'blue baby' surgery 50 years ago 'I Remember ... Thinking It Was Impossible'. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
  2. ^ Blue baby links - 11 February 2006 - New Scientist. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
  3. ^ Blue Baby Syndrome. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
  4. ^ Thomas, Vivien T. (1998). Partners of the Heart: Vivien Thomas and His Work With Alfred Blalock. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0812216342. 

[edit] External links

This medical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.