Left Heart Syndrome

2. The defect in Caleb’s heart allows blood to mix between the two ventricular chambers. Due to this defect would you expect the blood to move from left-to-right ventricle or right-to-left ventricle during systole? Explain your answer based on blood pressure and resistance in the heart and great vessels. It goes left to right during systole. The difference is normally, oxygen-poor (blue) blood returns to the right atrium from the body, travels to the right ventricle, and then is pumped into the lungs where it receives oxygen. Oxygen-rich (red) blood returns to the left atrium from the lungs, passes into the left ventricle, and then is pumped out to the body through the aorta. But when an infant has ventricular septal defect it still allows oxygen-rich (red) blood to pass from the left ventricle, through the opening in the septum, and then mix with oxygen-poor (blue) blood in the right ventricle. (ROCHESTER.EDU) but instead when systole occurs the blood gets mixed because of the septum therefore heart needs to pump harder to ensure that enough blood with oxygen reaches the body.

Individuals with this disorder further acquire congenital heart defects. It specifically blocks off the natural blood flow from the lungs and right chamber of the heart and/or causes an anomalous gap in the barrier that divides the heart chambers in two. Another symptom of this disorder are the problems involved in the digestive system. People who have this syndrome are

One of the rarest of congenital cardiac defects is Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, HLHS. This syndrome is described as a collection of anomalies affecting the left heart and connecting structures. Due to advancements in surgical intervention mortality rates in neonates with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome have decreased. Management of these patients requires a symphony of multidisciplinary teams including fetal and pediatric cardiologist, cardiac surgeons, neonatologist, pulmonologist, nutritionist and family counselors. Options currently comprise of heart transplant, three-staged palliative surgery and comfort care. There may be co-morbidities present which further complicate treatment, but with surgical intervention the

The kidneys filter fluid and waste products from the blood into the urine, but when the heart cannot pump adequately, the kidneys malfunction and cannot remove excess fluid from the blood. This is because when the heart is no longer pumping efficiently it becomes congested with blood, causing pressure to build up in the main vein connected to the kidneys and leading to even more congestion of blood, except this time in the kidneys as well. The kidneys also suffer from the reduced supply of oxygenated blood because of decreased pulmonary circulation. Both of these when combined together are the main factors as to why kidney filtration decreases due to left sided heart failure.

Condition where the left side of the heart is unable to pump an adequate amount of blood to the body, and can be life-threatening.

I am a NP currently working for a Hospital Medicine group in an inpatient setting. My primary job responsibilities are to admit patients into the hospital, round on patients, provide cross cover on the patients on our service, provide cross cover on inpatients who our group is consulted to see, respond to rapid response codes, and occasionally discharge patients.

Left sided heart failure that is forward failure can be manifested by dyspnea on exertion, ortopnea,

Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction (LVSD, but commonly referred to as heart failure) is a chronic, progressive cardiac syndrome in which a damaged heart fails to beat efficiently and deliver enough blood to meet the body's needs. Although coronary heart disease (CHD) is the most common cause, for example, myocardial infarction, and many of the conditions are intertwined, there are several other causes of heart failure including cardiomyopathies, hypertension and valve disease.

She was born with Tricuspid Atresia, Vetricula Steptum Defect, along with a Mirtral valve defect and numerous other medical issues. Tricuspid Atresia is a complex heart defect that occurs when the right ventricle in the heart fails to develop correctly during development in the womb. In Smilie’s case, it caused her to have little to no function in the right ventricle of the heart. To save Smilie’s life, doctors at the Prince Charles Hospital preformed a 3-stage surgery over 2 years to redirect blood flow within her body. Smilie had the BT Shunt at a few days old, the Hemi Fontan at 6 months old and the Fenestrated Fontan completed at 2 years of age. Smilie now has Hyploplastic Right Heart Syndrome as a result, which is a generalised term used to encompass the many conditions that can cause a lack of development in the Right Ventricle Side of the heart.

Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) is one of the common congenital left to right cardiac defects seen in children. The ductus arteriosus is a large communication pathway that is naturally patent in the fetus, connecting the trunk of the major pulmonary artery to the descending aorta (Shinde, Basantwani, & Tendolkar, 2016). During the fetal life, ductus arteriosus is a normal structure that allows the blood to pass from the right ventricle to the descending aorta by bypassing the pulmonary circulation. The ductus arteriosus is an important structure in the fetal development as it allow the blood flow to the rest of the fetal organ and structure. In fetus pulmonary

Left-sided heart failure is the most common type of heart failure, and it is a result of left-ventricular dysfunction. This disease poses a significant threat to patients because the primary function of the left side of the heart is to provide sufficient oxygenated blood to satisfy the metabolic demands of the body’s cells. Understanding the main function of this portion of the heart will help with the understanding of other complications associated with this diseased. Left-sided heart failure is usually the result of the loss of heart muscle function, specifically in the left ventricle secondary to coronary artery disease, prolonged hypertension, or myocardial infection (Lewis et al. 2014, 766). The

Congenital heart defects (CHD) are birth defects that are considered the common in the United States. These defects affect a newborn child’s blood flow to and from the heart and sometimes can leave the heart lacking parts that make it necessary for the heart to do its job. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2014), 1 in 4 children born with a CHD is considered critical and will result in that child needing heart surgery or other similar procedures within the first years of its life. These CHD’s can range from Atrial Septal Defects, Coarctation of the aorta, Ebstien anomaly, Pulmanary artesia, Tetralogy of Fallot, Trancus Arteriosus, Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, as well as many others (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). The specific CHD that will be covered in detail will be the Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS). HLHS accounts for nearly 960 congenital birth defects per year and

The left side of the heart brings oxygen-rich blood from the lungs through the left atrium to the left ventricle, then out into body. When the left side of the heart is damaged or can’t pump as well, it has to work harder to send blood through the body. This causes fluid to build up in the body, especially the lungs. That’s why shortness of breath is one of the most common symptoms of heart failure. Systolic failure happens when the heart doesn’t pump out blood the way it should. Diastolic means the heart doesn’t fill back up with blood as it should. The symptoms of left sided heart failure are tachypnea, increased work of breathing, crackles initially heard in lung bases, but when severe, heard throughout the lung fields, pulmonary edema, and dullness in lung fields to finger percussion, pleural effusion detectable by reduced breath sounds at the bases of the lungs, and cyanosis.

Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), one of the more common cardiac defects at birth, is the persistence of an opening between the pulmonary artery and the descending thoracic aorta. This opening is as a result of failure of the physiological fetus ductus arteriosus to close, which normally occurs soon after birth. This hole allows for oxygenated blood from the aorta to mix with oxygen-depleted blood from the pulmonary artery. As a consequence, significant strain is placed on the heart and pressure within the lungs’ arteries is dramatically increased.

Atrial Septal Defect(ASD) is a very large problem concerning the heart in its overall function. When the heart, being the core of the cardiovascular system, has issues; it effects the rest of the body as a result. The core of the problem resides in the atrial septum. Normally the heart is divided into four separate chambers. But a person with atrial septal defect has an atrial septum that allows the blood from the left side of the heart back into the right side. This results in increased pulmonary blood flow and diastolic overload of the right ventricle. By having this constant left-to-right shunt, it can alter the pulmonary vascular resistance leading to hypertension or even the reversal of the shunt itself.