Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Complications
By Mayo Clinic staffMany people with mild Ebstein's anomaly have few complications. However, you may need to take some precautions in certain situations:
- Being active. If you have mild Ebstein's anomaly with a nearly normal heart size and no heart rhythm disturbances, you can probably participate in most physical activities. Depending on your signs and symptoms, your doctor may recommend that you avoid competitive sports, such as football or basketball. Your cardiologist can help you decide which activities are right for you.
-
During pregnancy. In most cases, women with mild Ebstein's anomaly can safely have children. But pregnancy does have its risks. Being pregnant puts additional strain on your heart and circulatory system not only during pregnancy, but also during labor and delivery and for a period of time after your baby's birth. There is an increased risk of stroke if you have a hole between the upper chambers of the heart (atrial septal defect).
Rarely, women with Ebstein's anomaly develop severe complications that can cause death during pregnancy. If you plan on becoming pregnant, be sure to talk to your cardiologist ahead of time. He or she can tell you if it's safe for you to become pregnant and help decide how much extra monitoring you may need throughout pregnancy and childbirth.
Other complications that may result from Ebstein's anomaly include heart failure, rhythm problems and, less commonly, sudden cardiac arrest or stroke.
- Attenhofer Jost CH, et al. Ebstein's anomaly. Circulation. 2007;115(2):277-285.
- Pflaumer A, et al. Symptomatic neonates with Ebstein anomaly. Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. 2004;127(4):1208-1209.
- Kapusta L, et al. Ebstein's anomaly: Factors associated with death in childhood and adolescence: A multi-centre, long-term study. European Heart Journal. 2007;28(21):2661-2666.
- Brown ML, et al. Functional status after operation for Ebstein anomaly: The Mayo Clinic experience. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2008;52(6):460-466.
- Chen JM, et al. Early and medium-term results for repair of Ebstein anomaly. Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. 2004;127(4):990-999.
- Palmen M. Long-term follow-up after repair of Ebstein's anomaly. European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. 2008;34(1):48-54.
- Agarwala BN, et al. Ebstein's anomaly of the tricuspid valve. http://www.uptodate.com/index. Accessed Sept. 29, 2008.
- Ebstein's anomaly. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=11075. Accessed Oct. 2, 2008.
