PALS Plus: Congenital Heart Disease (CHD)

In this module, students learn about the general management of patients with single-ventricle anatomy and physiology. This includes changes as palliation progresses from stage I to stage III, physiologic features that can increase the risk of decompensation, monitoring, mechanical ventilation strategies and their impact, and differences in cardiopulmonary resuscitation for these patients.

After successfully completing this module, students should be able to:

• Explain the concept of neonatal single-ventricle anatomy and physiology and the general types of strategies to manage these patients

• Describe how the anatomy and physiology change from stage I to stage II and stage III, including how therapies differ

• Describe the mechanisms that result in increased risk for decompensation and death in patients with single-ventricle physiology

• List and explain the different types of monitoring that can be beneficial in the acute and chronic management of a patient with shunt-dependent single-ventricle physiology

• Explain mechanical ventilation strategies and how they impact the physiology of a patient with single-ventricle anatomy and physiology, specifically, with regard to stage of surgery and presence of heart failure

• Describe the treatment strategies of the single-ventricle patient with near arrest or cardiac arrest