2024 Children's of Alabama/UAB Annual Report

Surgery

“ “Not only are they getting the benefits that everybody gets from exercise, they are actually improving the venous return to their heart and their cardiac output as a result.”

– Camden Hebson, M.D.

“Sometimes, you just need to take the car out on the road and see how it drives,” he said, comparing traditional resting assessments to testing patients during exercise. “For most patients, in particular Fontan patients, your cardiovascular system is what limits your ability to exercise. So, how much exercise you can do at any given time is really just feedback on how well the heart works.” “So we need to encourage our patients to be ahead of the curve on how much exercise they do to keep their legs strong,” Hebson continued. “Not only are they getting the benefits that everybody gets from exercise, they are actually improving the venous return to their heart and their cardiac output as a result.”

“Anything that can be done to improve these patients’ lives and long-term outcomes would be a big deal,” he added.

“Understanding our shortcomings with Fontan physiology is an important step in trying to help these patients live a longer, healthier life,” Gray said. “In an ideal world, we would have an artificial pump, as Dr. Hebson has mentioned, to help blood move into the lungs. This would be protective against all the detrimental effects from long-standing Fontan physiology. Until then, important advancements, such as exploring how the Fontan patients’ cardiovascular system responds during exercise can be an important first step. This could help improve the overall functional status in these patients. Dr. Hebson’s work in this area is critical to our field and could help improve our understanding of how to better treat these patients long-term.”

2024 Academic Annual Report

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