LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Kawasaki Disease: Treatment
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The major complication of Kawasaki disease is heart damage. The most common type of heart damage is caused by irritation or inflammation of the vessels that carry blood to the muscle of the heart. The treatment described above works by reducing the inflammation and preventing the damage.
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Children with Kawasaki disease are hospitalized and care usually delivered by both pediatric cardiology and infectious disease specialists, although no infectious agent has been discovered. Treatment must be started as soon as the diagnosis is made to prevent damage to the coronary arteries and heart.
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If Kawasaki disease has affected your child's coronary arteries, he or she will need ongoing care and treatment. It's best if a pediatric cardiologist provides this care to reduce the risk of severe heart problems. A pediatric cardiologist is a doctor who treats children who have heart problems.
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Background Treatment of acute Kawasaki disease with intravenous immune globulin and aspirin reduces the risk of coronary-artery abnormalities and systemic inflammation, but despite intravenous immune globulin therapy, coronary-artery abnormalities develop in some children. Studies have suggested that primary corticosteroid therapy might be beneficial and that adverse events are infrequent with short-term use.
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Small coronary artery aneurysms resulting from Kawasaki disease are treated with ASA. For large aneurysms, warfarin, a blood-thinning medication, is added to the ASA treatment. Small aneurysms go away within a year, but often leave weakened arteries that can cause heart problems in the future. For example, children with Kawasaki disease can have heart attacks 10 years after first being diagnosed with the condition.
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Without treatment, about 1 in 5 children who have Kawasaki disease develop inflammation of the blood vessels to the heart (coronary arteries). This can cause a swelling of a section of an artery which is called an aneurysm.
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