Congenital Heart Defects

A congenital heart defect is genetic – it is something you are born with.

Over the past years, there has been a veritable revolution in the treatment of these defects. Most of them can now be fixed or repaired, including those that were once thought incurable.

1,000,000 million born with heart defects

In fact, in 2008, there were more than 1,000,000 people who had been born with congenital heart defects that had survived to adulthood.

If you had surgery as a child to repair a congenital heart defect, you may not even know what the problem was. This page will help you understand more about your congenital defect and, in many cases, how it was treated.

Grow to adulthood without knowing

Sometimes, it is possible to grow to adulthood with a congenital heart defect. This happens because there are now much more sophisticated diagnostic methods available to spot congenital defects that may not have been detectable when you were a child.

Some of the most common congenital heart defects

Here are some of the most common congenital heart defects and the methods used to fix or repair them.

Aortic Stenosis – this occurs when the aorti valve does not form properly. Whether surgery is required will depend on how bad the stenosis is. Surgery may improve stenosis in a child as the sugeon may be able to enlarge the valve opening. However, the valve will remain deformed and may eventually have to be replaced an artificial one.

Atrioventricular canal defect (also called endocardial cushion defect or atrioventricular septal defect). This defect occurs when there is a large hole in the center of the heart where the wall between the upper chambers joins the wall between the two lower chambers. Also, a single, large valve forms that crosses the defect – as the tricuspid and mitral valves that normally separate the heart’s upper and lower chambers are not formed as individual valves. The surgery to repair this defect is usually done in infancy. It consists of the surgeon closing the large hole with one or two patches and then diving the single valve between the heart’s lower and upper chambers to make two separate valves. This normally restores normal blood circulation.

Bicuspid aortic valve – while a normal aortic value has three flaps or cusps, a bicuspid valve has only two. This is a defect that may not show up until adulthood when it can become stenotic or narrowed. This makes it harder for you blood to pass through the valve or become regurgitant – allowing your blood to leeak backward though it. Treatment of this defect will depend on how well the valve works.

Pulmonary stenosis – A pulmonary valve that is defective doesn’t open properly is called stenotic. This defect causes the right ventricle to pump harder than normal to overcome the stenosis or obstacle. When a child is born with this defect, the obstruction can often be repaired with a balloon valvuloplasty. If not, the alternative is open heart surgery which usually opens the valve satisfactorily. Follow-up is usually required after either the balloon valvuloplasty or the surgery to make sure the heart function returns to normal.

Subaortic stenosis – this congenital defect is a narrowing of the left ventricle just below the aortic valve which blood goes through to go into the aorta. It limits the flow of blood out of the left ventricle. While the condition is often congenital, it can also be a form of cardiomyopathy known as idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis or IHSS. In either case, its treatment will depend on the severity of the narrowing and will include either drugs or surgery.

Ventricular septal defect (VSD) – VSD occurs when an opening exists between the heart’s upper and lower chambers. Some of the blood that is returned from the lungs and has been pumped into the left ventricle flows to the right ventricle instead of being pumped into the aorta. Since the heart has to work harder to pump the extra blood, it can become enlarged. If the opening is small, it is just a loud murmur and will not require treatment. If it’s a large opening, open-heart surgery may be required to close the hole.

Tricuspid arteriosus – If a child is born with this condition, there is no tricuspid valve. This means that no blood can flow from the right atrium to the right ventricle. The resulting problem is that the right ventricle will be small and not fully developed. Since circulation is not normal, the baby’s blood cannot get enough oxygen and the baby will look blue (cyanotic). The treatment most often used to fix tricuspid arteriosus is a surgical shunting procedure to increase blood flow to the child’s lungs. Some children with this defect actually have too much blood flowing to the lungs. In this case, they may need a procedure called pulmonary artery banding to reduce blood flow to the lungs.

Hypoplastic left heart symptom is a defect that happens when the left side of the heart is underdeveloped – including the aorta, aortic valve, left ventricle and mitral valve. This causes blood returning from the lungs to flow through an opening in the wall between the atria, called an atrial septal defect. Unfortunately, this defect cannot be corrected. However, in some cases, the baby can be treated with a series of operations or by a heart transplant.

Some of the other heart disease causes – congenital heart defects include atrial septal defect, atrioventicular canal defect, Ebstein’s anomaly, Eisenmenger’s complex, patent dudtus arteriosus (PDA), tetralogy of fallot, total anomalous pulmonary venous (P-V) connection, transposition of the great arteries, and truncus arteriosus.

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