HEART DISEASES WITH LEFT TO RIGHT SHUNT

An abnormal communication in the wall between right and left side of the heart makes the blood flows from left to right (it shunts) because the pressure in the left chambers (atrium, ventricle and aorta) is higher than the pressure in the right chambers. The left to right shunt produce an increase of the amount of blood that reaches the lungs. These heart diseases are also called  pulmonary volume overload heart diseases.
The patient is acyanotic because the blood pumped out from the right ventricle flows to lungs where it is oxygenated. When the shunt is quantitatively significant it produce an overload in cardiac work, that induces heart enlargement; the consequence can be heart failure with respiratory distress, tiredness and fluid retention.

The principal congenital heart diseases with left to right shunt are the atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus and atrioventricular canal.

 

<< back