congenital heart disease

essentially the problem is:

  • Not enough pulmonary blood flow → they are blue
  • Too much pulmonary blood flow → pink
  • Not enough systemic blood flow → grey
  • Not enough coronary artery blood flow
Cyanotic (implies R→L shunt) Acyanotic (L→R shunt)
- tetralogy of Fallot
- TGA
- TV/pulmonary atresia
- TAPVD (Total anomalous pulmonary venous drainage) - pulm veins
- hypoplastic L heart syndrome
- truncus arteriosus

- ASD
- VSD
- PDA
- coarctation of aorta

clinical presentation

left to right shunt

'Tet spell'

  • systemic vascular resistance ↓ e.g. from crying
  • ↑ shunting from right to left side
  • ↓ pO2, ↑ CO2 → hypoxic vasoconstriction in lungs
  • ↑ venous return... which ↑ shunting!

BREAK THE CYCLE:

  • calm everyone down (you, the patient and the parent)
  • ↑ systemic vascular resistance = knees to chest
  • ↓ pulmonary vascular resistance = high flow oxygen
  • ↓ venous return