Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a general term for heart disorders in children that affect the normal way the heart works. The term “congenital” means the condition is present by birth. Many children are born with heart defects. In India, over 200,000 children are born with a congenital heart defect each year.

1. What are the serious Congenital
Heart Defect?
Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a general term for heart disorders
in children that affect the normal way the heart works. The term
“congenital” means the condition is present by birth. Many children are
born with heart defects. In India, over 200,000 children are born with a
congenital heart defect each year.
The silver lining is that with improvements in medicine, many of these
children can live well into their adulthood, provided the defect is
diagnosed on time and the child receives a timely congenital heart defect
treatment.
The Causes
In most cases, no obvious cause of congenital heart disease is identified.
However, some things are known to increase the risk of the condition,
which includes:
• Genetic conditions: Some genetic conditions such as Down’s
syndrome – a genetic disorder that affects a baby’s normal physical
development and causes learning difficulties have been known to be
associated with CHD.
• Exposure of the mother to certain infections, such as rubella, during
pregnancy
• Certain types of medication taken during pregnancy
• Smoking or drinking alcohol during pregnancy
• Mother suffering with type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes
Types of Heart Disorders in Children
Most congenital heart conditions affect people from childhood through
adulthood. It involves problems with the chambers of the heart, holes in
the heart, abnormal connections in the heart, and abnormalities in how
the heart functions.

2. There are many types of congenital heart defects. They range from
simple to complex and critical. Some of the types of congenital heart
defects include:
• Septal Defects – where there’s a hole between 2 of the heart’s
chambers (commonly referred to as a “hole in the heart”)
• Coarctation of the Aorta – where the main large artery of the
body, called the aorta, is narrower than normal. This is often
considered as a serious defect.
• Pulmonary Valve Stenosis – where the pulmonary valve, which
controls the flow of blood out of the lower right chamber of the heart
to the lungs, is narrower than normal
• Transposition of the Great Arteries – the main arteries leading
away from the heart — the aorta and the pulmonary artery — are
switched (transposed). This is a critical birth defect.
• Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome – where the left side of the
heart is extremely underdeveloped.
• Pulmonary Atresia (with intact septum) – where the valve
between the heart and lungs (pulmonary valve) isn’t fully developed.
Blood can’t flow from the right lower heart chamber (right ventricle)
to the lungs, meaning that blood cannot flow to the lungs to pick up
oxygen for the body.
• Tetralogy of Fallot – a combination of four types of heart defects.
This is regarded as a critical CHD.
• Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Connection – in which
the 4 veins that take blood from the lungs to the heart do not attach
normally to the left atrium (left upper chamber of the heart). Instead,
they attach to another blood vessel or the wrong part of the heart.
• Tricuspid atresia– The valve isn’t formed between the two right
heart chambers. In babies with this defect, blood can’t flow correctly
through the heart and to the rest of the body. This is a serious CHD.
• Truncus arteriosus – is a rare congenital heart defect where a
single common blood vessel comes out of the heart, instead of the
usual two vessels (the main Pulmonary Artery and Aorta).

3. Congenital heart disease can have a number of symptoms, particularly in
babies and children, such as rapid heartbeat, swelling of the legs,
extreme tiredness and fatigue, a blue tinge to the skin or lips (cyanosis),
poor feeding – especially in infants, poor weight gain in infants,
irritability or prolonged crying etc. These problems are sometimes
noticeable soon after birth, although mild defects may not cause any
problems until later in life.
Timely diagnosis of CHD is critical to improve the prognosis of the child.
Congenital Heart Defect Treatment
Babies born with a CHD should be seen by a pediatric cardiologist and
receive special care and treatment. The type of congenital heart
defect treatment recommended will depend on the type of CHD that
the baby has. For some children, special care may be needed throughout
life. Sometimes, babies who have more than one medical problem may
need additional treatments for their other medical problems.
References
Congenital Heart Defects – dextro-Transposition of the Great Arteries
(d-TGA) | CDC
Hoffman, Julien IE, and Samuel Kaplan. “The incidence of congenital
heart disease.” Journal of the American college of cardiology 39.12
(2002): 1890-1900.
Van Der Bom, Teun, et al. “The changing epidemiology of congenital
heart disease.” Nature Reviews Cardiology 8.1 (2011): 50-60.
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serious-congenital-heart-defect/