Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease

Overview

Pediatric heart disease is a term used to describe several different heart conditions in children. The most common type of pediatric heart disease is congenital, meaning that children are born with it. Congenital heart defects (CHD) can exist in adults, but are still considered CHD if the adult was born with the disease.

According to the American Heart Association, congenital heart defects (present at birth) are the most common type of birth defect. 

They affect 8 out of every 1,000 newborns. Each year, more than 35,000 babies in the United States are born with congenital heart defects. 

Congenital heart patient
Infant with congenital heart disease.
What are Congenital Heart Defects

What are Congenital Heart Defects

Dr. Ram Subramanyan provides more information on congenital heart defects in the video below.  

 

Types of Congenital Heart Defects

Types of Congenital Heart Defects

Some of the congenital heart defects that are treated by cardiothoracic surgeons include:

  • Aortic Stenosis
  • Atrial Septal Defect 
  • Atrioventricular Canal Defect  
  • Coarctation of the Aorta 
  • Ebstein’s Anomaly
  • Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome 
  • Interrupted Aortic Arch 
  • Patent Ductus Arteriosus 
  • Pulmonary Stenosis 
  • Pulmonary Atresia 
  • Single Ventricle (Functionally Univentricular Heart)
  • Tetralogy of Fallot 
  • Transposition of the Great Arteries
  • Truncus Arteriosus 
  • Ventricular Septal Defect 
Congenital Heart Defects

Congenital Heart Defects

Dr. Ram Subramanyan provides additional background on congenital heart defects in this video. Watch as he discusses how defects in the heart can occur while a baby is developing in the mother’s womb. 

 

Much more rarely, children have acquired heart disease, that is, they were not born with heart disease; but they acquired it after birth. These diseases include inflammatory heart disease such as rheumatic heart disease that occurs after rheumatic fever or infectious heart disease, such as endocarditis or trauma to the heart (cardiac trauma). 

The operations used to treat acquired heart disease in children are similar to those used to treat CHD.

 

Reviewed by: Ram Kumar Subramanyan, MD, PhD, and Lauren C. Kane
December 2017