Ventricular septal defects

A defect in the interventricular septum that allows shunting of blood between the left and right ventricles.

Usually congenital, but rarely acquired after myocardial infarction or trauma.

May be associated with other congenital defects such as tetralogy of Fallot.

Significant left-to-right shunting results in pulmonary hypertension, which, if left untreated, can progress to shunt reversal with cyanosis and the Eisenmenger syndrome.

Small shunts may close spontaneously in childhood and can be managed by observation.

Large shunts require surgical closure.

Ventricular septal defects (VSDs) are congenital or acquired defects in the interventricular septum that allow shunting of blood between the left and right ventricles. Eisenmenger syndrome is shunt reversal (blood flowing from the right to the left ventricle) leading to the distribution of deoxygenated blood to the systemic arterial circulation.