It Is Not Always Sepsis: Fatal Tachypnea in a Newborn

Coarctation of the aorta (CoA) is a congenital cardiac malformation that is well understood. Despite being well characterized, CoA is a commonly missed congenital heart disease (CHD) during the newborn period. We report a full-term nine-day-old male who presented to the pediatric emergency departmen...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rachel Levene, Elza Pollak-Christian, Ashish Garg, Michael Keenaghan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2018-01-01
Series:Case Reports in Pediatrics
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/7858192
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Coarctation of the aorta (CoA) is a congenital cardiac malformation that is well understood. Despite being well characterized, CoA is a commonly missed congenital heart disease (CHD) during the newborn period. We report a full-term nine-day-old male who presented to the pediatric emergency department (ED) with isolated tachypnea. After an initial sepsis workup, subsequent investigations revealed critical CoA. Because the primary workup focused on sepsis, there was a significant delay in prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) initiation. This case illustrates the importance of early CoA recognition and timely initiation of PGE1 in newborns who present with suspected sepsis along with tachypnea.
ISSN:2090-6803
2090-6811