Congenital Heart Disease (CHD)

What is it? VSD is an opening or hole (defect) in the wall (septum) separating the two lower chambers of the heart (ventricles). In normal development, the wall between the chambers closes before the fetus is born, so that by birth, oxygen-rich blood is kept from mixing with the oxygen-poor blood. When the hole does […]

What is it? A heart in which the two main arteries carrying blood away from the heart are reversed. A normal blood pattern carries blood in a cycle: body-heart-lungs-heart-body. When a d-transposition (D-TGA) occurs, the blood pathway is impaired because the two arteries are connecting to the wrong chambers in the heart. This means that

What is it? A defect in the veins leading from the lungs to the heart. In TAPVC, the blood does not take the normal route from the lungs to the heart and out to the body. Instead, the veins from the lungs attach to the heart in abnormal positions and this problem means that oxygenated

What is it? A heart defect that features four problems:  a hole between the lower chambers of the heart an obstruction from the heart to the lungs The aorta (blood vessel) lies over the hole in the lower chambers The muscle surrounding the lower right chamber becomes overly thickened What causes it? In most children, the cause

What is it? An unclosed hole in the main body artery (aorta). Before a baby is born, the fetus’s blood does not need to go to the lungs to get oxygenated. The ductus arteriosus is a hole that allows the blood to skip the circulation to the lungs. However, when the baby is born, the

What is it? In this condition the aorta (the main artery that carries blood from the heart to the body) is narrowed or constricted. This narrowing affects blood flow where the arteries branch out to carry blood along separate vessels to the upper and lower parts of the body. CoA can cause high blood pressure or heart

What is it? Many terms are used to describe this complex defect. They include atrioventricular (AV) canal, complete AV canal, complete common AV canal, atrioventricular septal defect and endocardial cushion defect.  A large hole in the center of the heart affecting all four chambers where they would normally be divided. When a heart is properly

What is it? An atrial septal defect (ASD) is an abnormal opening or hole in the septum—the muscular wall that separates the heart’s two upper chambers, known as the atria. This wall normally keeps oxygen-rich blood on the left side of the heart separate from oxygen-poor blood on the right side. When an ASD is

The normal human heart is a remarkably efficient and powerful muscular pump that works continuously from before birth until the end of life. Beating about 70 times a minute at rest, it pumps nearly 7,000 litres of blood every day to supply oxygen and nutrients to all organs of the body. Roughly the size of