Hypoplastic left heart syndrome pathophysiology


 * Associate Editor(s)-In-Chief: Priyamvada Singh, M.B.B.S.[mailto:psingh@perfuse.org],, Keri Shafer, M.D. [mailto:kshafer@bidmc.harvard.edu]; Assistant Editor(s)-In-Chief: Kristin Feeney, B.S.[mailto:kfeeney@perfuse.org]

Overview
In patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, the left side of the heart is unable to send enough blood to the body. As a result, the right side of the heart must maintain the circulation for both the lungs and the body. The right ventricle can support the circulation to both the lungs and the body for a while, but this extra workload eventually causes the right side of the heart to fail.

The only possibility of survival is a connection between the right and the left side of the heart, or between the arteries and pulmonary arteries (the blood vessels that carry blood to the lungs).

Pathological Findings
Images courtesy of Professor Peter Anderson DVM PhD and published with permission © PEIR, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Pathology