The NICU Heart's Journey
Congenital heart defects affect 40,000 births per year in the US with the most common being ventricular septal defects (VSD). 1/4 CHDs are critical and require surgery. As a nurse in the NICU heart defects are so common to me but I also don't see all the babies that never come to the NICU! As a parent this can be a terrifying discovery so I'm here to help you educate yourself a little and be there for your little one - their hearts are so much stronger than you think!
The most common heart defects we see in the NICU & the ones I'll be explaining are listed to the right.
- Atrial Septal Defect (ASD)
- Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD)
- Tetralogy of Fallot
- Coarctation of the Aorta
- Pulmonary Atresia
- Transposition of the Great Arteries
The heart is like a pump that sends blood all around the body. To make the explanations of these conditions easier to understand and digest, were going to imagine that the heart is a house with 4 different rooms. Normally the heart has 4 chambers separated by walls called septa. The two top rooms are called the atria, the two bottom rooms are called ventricles. The walls between the atria should be solid and the walls between the ventricles should be solid.
