The natural history of ventricular septal defects in the south-western region of Saudi Arabia.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the natural history and spontaneous closure (SpC) of ventricular septal defect (VSD) in a cohort of patients.


METHODS
Using echocardiography, 86 patients with VSD were followed up for 1-168 mths (mean 66.3, SD 46.0).


RESULTS
Mean age at diagnosis was 14 mths, 26 patients were diagnosed at < or = 1 mth (group 1) and 60 later (group 2). Types of VSD were: peri-membranous (PM-VSD) 67.4%, muscular (MU-VSD) 19.8%, inlet 7% and subpulmonary/subarterial 5.8%. SpC occurred in 16.3% of the whole group, 34.6% of group 1 and 8.3% of group 2 (p = 0.002). SpC occurred only in PM-VSDs (19%) and in MU-VSDs (17.6%). It occurred in 26.5% of the small VSDs and in none of the large VSDs. One patient (1.2%) developed endocarditis and another pulmonary vascular disease.


CONCLUSIONS
PM-VSD was the most common type of VSD. SpC is age-dependent, occurring mainly in PM and MU-VSDs. SpC of a large VSD is unusual.
Abbag
Fuad
F
Department of Child Health, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. fuadabbag@yahoo.com
D000367:Age Factors; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000473:pathology; D006345:Heart Septal Defects, Ventricular / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis; D012075:Remission, Spontaneous; D012529:Saudi Arabia