Riley Norton's Weblog: Fontan surgery scheduled

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Fontan surgery scheduled

Riley is scheduled to have his third open-heart operation on March 9, 2006.

He will have a heart catheterization at UCSF on March 2. His Fontan surgery will be performed by Dr. Tom Karl on March 9, with him being admitted to the hospital on the morning of March 8.

See Riley's mom's thoughts here.
See Riley's dad's thoughts here.

Picutures from Riley's second surgery, which took place on May 27, 2004, are available here.

1 comment:

All About Nathan said...: Hi
I hope all went well for your sons surgery. I know how you are feeling my son Nathan (4) had his Fontan Surgery in July 2006.; 5:26 PM

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Riley's Medical Condition

Riley was born with congenital heart defects that were detected shortly after birth. He has a condition called heterotaxy which means his internal organs are reversed. His heart is on the right side of his chest. He is also missing a spleen, a cardiac-related condition called asplenia syndrome. Riley's heart only has a single ventricle and a common valve. Before treatment, oxygen poor blood mixed with oxygenated blood causing severe cyanosis ("blueness").

There is no cure for Riley's disease but a three-stage palliative treatment is commonly performed. A few days after birth in April 2003 surgeons at UCSF performed the first stage, a BT Shunt. In May 2004 surgeons performed the Glenn Procedure. In March 2006 Riley underwent the Fontan Procedure, the third stage. Riley developed protein losing enteropathy and in March 2007 received a Fontan fenestration which failed, followed by the Fontan takedown in April 2007.

In 2014, Riley began developing arteriovenous malformations in his lungs. That's an indication that his Glenn circulation is not holding up. In October 2014, Riley went to Stanford for a 1.5 ventricle septation repair.