We are currently working on creating a list of useful information and links for cardiothoracic patients.
Welcome to the CCAN Public Section of the ACTACC Website
Anaesthetists who look after patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) undergo extensive specialist training to ensure they have the right combination of knowledge, skill, aptitude and experience to provide the best possible anaesthetic care. Anaesthetists work extremely closely with all the members of the congenital heart disease team in hospitals and within the Congenital Heart Disease Networks across the United Kingdom.
Most patients who are being admitted for a cardiac procedure under general or regional anaesthesia go through a process of preassessment. This will usually be undertaken by a team of professionals from specialist nursing, cardiac physiology, medical and anaesthetic backgrounds. For children, play therapy specialists together with specialist psychology colleagues can often help to prepare a child for admission to hospital. For CHD patients who are pregnant, there are specialist obstetric anaesthetists who will be involved in your care when you deliver your baby.
Your anaesthetist will be very happy to discuss anaesthetic management with you, concentrating on ensuring that the anaesthetic can be designed and delivered taking into account the specific history and features of you as an individual and unique patient.
The cardiac anaesthetic team may also occasionally provide advice and support to some patients with more complex CHD who are being admitted for non-cardiac surgery.
Helpful sources of information
Information for patients, families and children undergoing general anaesthesia are available from many sources. As always, it’s important to understand that each patient is different and unique, and information from websites may not be fully applicable to every patient. Your anaesthetist will ensure they understand everything about you in order to assess and understand your specific risks and how best to deliver anaesthetic management to you when you come into hospital. They will discuss all of this with you, tailored to your understanding and communication preferences, before you undergo anaesthesia.
Our professional body is the Royal College of Anaesthetists
A link to an informative film called ‘A little deep sleep’, which has already been watched more than fifty thousand times, and aimed at children undergoing general anaesthesia (not just for cardiac surgery), is below.
An alternative to watching the film is to read this Beano-inspired story about Dennis the Menace having an anaesthetic.
There are a number of specialty societies for anaesthetists and other healthcare professionals who look after and manage patients with congenital heart disease, and some of these have public pages - https://www.bcca-uk.org/
Many patients with CHD who come in for in-patient treatment such as cardiac surgery and complex catheterisation will be admitted to an intensive care unit afterwards. For clinicians in these fields of practice, the following organisations or professional bodies are relevant: