Heart Failure Clinic

Heart Failure Clinic

About the Clinic

Heart failure (HF) is an important healthcare issue in both adults and children because of its high death rates, morbidity, and cost of care. In developing countries like India, it is a major public health concern, associated with high rates of hospital admissions, disability, and mortality.

The burden of Paediatric Heart failure in our country is unknown as too many children have no access to medical care and die of Heart failure each year. It is estimated in the US that more than 14,000 hospitalizations related to pediatric HF occur annually, caused mainly by cardiomyopathies and congenital heart diseases. Although early operative management has decreased the prevalence of symptomatic HF to as low as 10% in some series, almost half of patients with cardiomyopathies develop severe and life-threatening forms of HF, necessitating cardiac transplantation. Therefore, the mortality related to Pediatric HF is significantly higher (more than 20 times) than in other children, reaching 7% in some studies. Pediatric HF is also associated with a very high cost of care. In India, we do not have an estimate of cost of care of Paediatric Heart failure patients whereas in the US, an average of one billion dollars is spent on In-hospital patient care of Heart failure patients.

Treatment of Paediatric Heart failure has evolved over the past decade to meet the growing demands and challenges in the care of this complex group of patients. The ultimate goal is to find a readily available, affordable, easily administered and safe therapy that will slow the progression of HF, allowing reasonably normal growth and development. Children are not small adults. They are a separate and challenging entity, especially when disease strikes them and involves the heart. Heart failure in newborns, infants, and older children have a variety of presentations and disease processes. There are so many modalities of treatment that can be offered to them. Many improve with medicines. Others may respond to interventions or open heart surgeries which can tide over the illness and grow them to adults, by which time they are either cured or can be tackled more easily as adults. Some may require ECMO or ventricular assist device and a few will heart or heart-lung transplants.

The emerging evidence from the recent studies in paediatric Heart Failure and a collaborative multidisciplinary approach will likely to improve the outcomes of children with Heart Failure in future. The aim of the Paediatric Cardiac failure program is to assess children of all age groups to optimise their treatment modality and quality of life. Medical management, palliative surgeries and transplant and post-transplant care are all envisaged in the scope of this venture.

The Team

Dr Anuradha Sridhar
DNB (Paed), FNB (Poed Card)
Consultant Paediatric and Adult Congenital Cardiologist
Apollo Children’s Hospitals(CIGI)

Dr Neville Solomon
MS, M.Ch
Consultant Paediatric and Adult Congenital Cardiac Surgeon
Apollo Children’s Hospitals

Contact Us

• The Heart Failure Clinic
  
  Apollo Children’s Hospital
  
  No. 15, Shafee Mohammed Road,
  
  Thousand Lights, Chennai – 600006
  
  Contact us at 9003207000 / +91-44-28296262