(soft music)
- So with babies that have
hypoplastic left heart syndrome,
all the blood that's
returning from the lungs
comes back to the left side of the heart,
but it can't get through the
left side that's too small.
It's very important that
babies have a large connection
between the two upper
chambers of the heart.
So in this diagram,
what I'm talking about is the hole here
between the upper two chambers
that all babies normally have
and is very important that babies
with hypoplastic left heart syndrome have.
In a very small percentage of babies
with hypoplastic left heart syndrome,
this hole is either too
small or even nonexistent,
and in those babies,
this can create problems
with the baby's lungs.
In babies that the hole is too small,
the blood will come back from the lungs
to this upper chamber,
and it has no where to go.
It can't cross across that hole
and it can't go into the
left side of the heart
that's too small.
This allows the pressure to
build up in this upper chamber
rand that pressure
transmits back to the lungs,
'cause high pressures in the lungs
can cause problems over the long term
and for the rest of the pregnancy.
The problems that result from
this are chronic lung damage,
as well as problems right
after the baby is born
with oxygen levels that are too low.
What we would like to achieve
with fetal intervention
on these specific babies
to enlarge the hole
between the upper chambers.
By enlarging that hole, we
can decompress the pressure
and lower the pressure
that the lungs are seeing
and what we think is
that it's really gonna help
the development of the lungs
in these babies
and really lead to a much better chance
at a good life after the babies are born.
Without this intervention,
these babies,
we can expect to be quite
sick once they're born
and we have to be prepared
to do an intervention
on these babies right after they're born.
So that's what we're
really trying to avoid
with doing the fetal intervention.
We're hoping to have these
babies be much more stable
and be much better
candidates for the surgery
after they're born.
