What are congenital heart defects?
A congenital heart defect (CHD) is a structural problem (or defect) in the heart that is present at birth. They were once considered a childhood disease, when the life expectancy was limited to a few weeks, months, and in a few cases, several years.
The amazing progress over the last 50 years in diagnosis, surgery, and in the newer interventional catheter-based procedures have vastly improved survival, such that now more than 50% of people living with CHD are adults.
Among patients with some lesions, such as Tetralogy of Fallot, 70% are adults. The proportion of adults with CHD will continue to increase because currently, 98% of children born with heart defects will survive to adulthood.
CHD can involve the walls of the heart, the valves of the heart, and the arteries and veins near the heart. CHD can disrupt the normal flow of blood through the heart. The blood flow can:
- Slow down
- Go in the wrong direction or to the wrong place
- Be blocked completely
CHD is the most common type of major birth defect affecting 1 in 70 Canadian newborns. CHD patients have a wide variety of heart defects, each type requiring different levels of intervention and monitoring. There are many types of congenital heart defects. They include:
- Abnormal passages in the heart or between blood vessels
- Problems with the heart valves
- Problems with the placement or development of blood vessels near the heart
- Problems with development of the heart itself
To find out more about CHD, please click HERE and click on “Managing Congenital Heart Defects”.