Medically Reviewed by David J. Steflik, MD

McLeod Health Pediatric Cardiologist Dr. David Steflik explains this congenital heart defect that affects approximately 42 in every 10,000 babies.

Q. What is a Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD)?

VSD is the term used when a person has a hole in their heart. It involves the two main pumping chambers of the heart, which are the ventricles, right ventricle and left ventricle. There’s a wall between them, so a VSD is a hole in that wall. There can be multiple holes in separate places. Some that are in the muscle are not as serious, but some of them pose a bigger problem, especially when they’re large. They cause heart failure symptoms early on in life.

Q. What symptoms would lead you to diagnose a patient with this condition?

Most of the time symptoms are found in a newborn baby when they go to their pediatrician visit, or even as early as in the newborn nursery. They’re referred to our office after the pediatrician hears a murmur. So then I’ll listen to the child’s heart, and we do an echocardiogram and ultrasound of the heart.

Q. Are there risk factors for this condition?

Sometimes there is a genetic predisposition, which means this condition can run in families; however, the majority of the time the condition randomly occurs.

Q. After a patient has been diagnosed, what are the treatment options?

Some of these defects are really small, and they close on their own; that’s what I hope and pray for my patients. When I do diagnose a VSD, some of them are large, and that causes extra blood flow going to the lungs, which causes heart failure symptoms in babies. We have medicine that can help with those over-circulation symptoms like fast breathing. When babies breathe fast, they don’t eat as much, and they use a lot more calories to breathe. Breathing is one of their major energy expenditures. A byproduct of this is poor weight gain. We can put them on diuretics, which helps their work of breathing by getting some of that fluid off of their lungs. But ultimately, if the hole is large and causes heart failure symptoms, it may require surgical intervention as early as four to six months of life, sometimes sooner.

Q. What are the complications if the condition is left untreated?

So long term, heart failure symptoms, poor weight gain, and continued fast breathing will continue. ‘Failure to thrive’ is what we call that in pediatrics; failure to gain appropriate weight. That can lead to pretty significant lung damage. If the hole is big enough, that would result in pulmonary hypertension, which can cause long-term health problems, including early death.

Q. What is the prognosis if a child is properly treated?

With the proper treatment, and if the condition is adequately managed, patients can expect a normal quality of life and a normal length of life.

To learn more about this condition, make an appointment with a pediatrician near you.