Dr. Licht also works with CHOP’s NeuroCardiac Care Program, a
program created for children with CHD at risk for
neurodevelopmental issues. Congenital heart defects (CHD) are
among the most common birth defects in humans, affecting 8 per
1000 live births. one-third of these children will have severe
heart defects that require surgical repair in early infancy for
survival. Improved survival over the last 15 years has revealed
significant neurodevelopmental dysfunction among half of all
survivors of these early surgeries. Underlying this
neurobehavioral dysfunction is a high prevalence of white matter
injury, termed periventricular leukomalacia (PVL). PVL occurs
primarily in the immature brain when the oxygen demand of the
brain tissue exceeds the delivery of oxygen and nutrients in the
blood — delivery of oxygen can falter due to a lack of blood
oxygen content or a drop in blood flow. MRI has been used in
previous studies to determine the prevalence of PVL in infants
with CHD before and after surgical repair. T