Ventricular septal defect epidemiology and demographics


 * Associate Editors-In-Chief: Priyamvada Singh, MBBS mailto:psingh@perfuse.org; ; Assistant Editor-In-Chief: Kristin Feeney, B.S. mailto:kfeeney@perfuse.org

Overview
The ventricular septal defect is the commonest congenital cardiac malformation with an incidence of 3 to 3.5 per 1,000 live births, corresponding to 30% of all newborns with a congenital heart defect. There is no predilection based on sex. Incidence rates are similar in different races and seasons and are unrelated to maternal age, birth order, sex, and socioeconomic status. Congential VSDs are frequently associated with other congential conditions, such as Down syndrome.

Pediatrics

 * The incidence has been found to be approximately 3 to 3.5 infants per 1000 live births.

Adults

 * The prevalence of ventricular septal defects is less in adults compared to the infants. This might be due to the fact that many small ventricular septal defects have spontaneous closure in childhood, . Due to the improvement in early diagnosis in childhood and improved medical, surgical and ICU care, the number of adults will continue to rise. However, despite improved survival to adulthood, many patients will continue to have problems with residual shunts, valvular heart disease, ventricular dysfunction, heart failure and arrhythmias. The risk of sudden death in adults with congenital heart disease is nearly 25-50 times greater than would be expected for their age.
 * In adults (without congenital heart defects), a VSD can form a few days after a myocardial infarction (heart attack). It might be due to mechanical tearing of the septal wall, before scar tissue forms and macrophages start remodeling the dead (heart) tissue.

Incidence in United States of America
Only in the United States, there are approximately 1 million adults with congenital heart disease, with 20,000 new patients reaching adolescence each year.

Sex
There is no predilection based on sex.

Race
There is no significant difference in incidences of ventricular septal defects based on race.