Many different medical conditions are linked to poor blood flow problems...

The use of Viagra, the famous erectile dysfunction drug is becoming more common to treat babies who are born with an extremely rare genetic disease that causes blood flow problems.  Ukmedix News has reported on a number of times when very young children and babies were given Viagra to keep them alive and in this latest case a baby of the only sixteen months is being kept alive with the sildenafil citrate impotence drug.

The girl in question Hannah MacDonald suffers from Chromosome Deletion Syndrome in which essential chromosomes are missing from the body and it was diagnosed in her when she was only four days old.  This rare condition means that she has big problems in pumping blood around her body and this means that simple actions like eating or drinking are very difficult for her.  She is also unable to sit up on her own and without Viagra being used to help her she would be unable to have a normal life and probably die. 

In her case the Viagra is not given in the form of a tablet but is fed into has stomach using a tube. The Viagra drug is not licensed for use with the rare Chromosome Deletion Syndrome but doctors obtain consent forms from the parents of the child explaining that there could be risks in using the erectile dysfunction drug on children but explaining that it is likely to cure the child and therefore is a risk worth taking.

Viagra and the other two erectile dysfunction drugs, namely Cialis and Levitra are likely in the future to be used for many other different applications other than treating men who have problems in sustaining and maintaining erections. Many different medical conditions are linked to poor blood flow problems and impotency is just one of them.