Doctors turn to stem cell treatment to heal the youngest hearts
Almost one out of 100 babies are born with a heart defect each year in the United States. Many of these babies will need surgery within weeks of birth, followed by more surgeries throughout their lives. Now, doctors are turning to stem cells to give big hope for little hearts.
“Hypoplastic left heart syndrome is a complex congenital heart disease. It is where the left ventricle does not develop,” Sunjay Kaushal, MD, Ph.D., Chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, explained.
Those newborns depend solely on their right ventricles to pump blood throughout their bodies.
Kaushal emphasizes, “These babies need surgical intervention in the first weeks of life.”
Between 15% and 20% of those babies will not live to see their first birthdays….