Ventricular Septal Defect Lesson #701

The patient was supine during auscultation.

Description

Ventricular Septal Defect is a congenital condition associated with abnormal blood flow between the left ventricle and the right ventricle. During fetal development, a wall develops creating right and left ventricles. In abnormal cases, a defect in the wall persists, allowing blood flow from the left ventricle into the right ventricle. This condition is known as a ventricular septal defect.

The first heart sound is normal, and S2 is unsplit. A third heart sound followed by a short diamond shaped diastolic murmur is present. A medium-pitched murmur fills all of systole.

In the anatomy animation, observe an enlarged right ventricle and an enlarged left atrium. You see turbulent blood flow from the left ventricle into the right ventricle through the up portion of the septum (the systolic murmur). There is further turbulent flow into the left ventricle from the left atrium causing the diastolic murmur. This is caused by VSD induced increased blood flow across the mitral valve.

This ventricular septal defect was auscultated at the tricuspid position.