Double-Outlet Right Ventricle

Nancy McDaniel M.D.

The heart in this defect has four chambers and four valves.

There is a large hole in the wall between the two pumping chambers called a ventricular septal defect (VSD). This allows the red and blue blood to mix. In addition, the lung artery and the main artery to the body (aorta) both come out of the right pumping chamber. In a normal heart only the lung artery comes out of the right ventricle. How the baby grows, feeds, and whether or not the baby has blueness (cyanosis) depends on how close the hole is to valves of the lung artery or the aorta.

Sometimes the child will need medication to reduce the heart failure (too much blood flow in the lungs). If the child is too blue (not enough blood going to the lungs) the child may need to have surgery to put a tube (shunt) into the lung artery to put more blood into the lung. This shunt would make the child pinker. Sometimes this type of heart defect can be fixed with an open heart surgery such that the hole is closed and the blue blood goes to lungs and the red blood goes to the body.

1. Aortic and pulmonary artery arise from right ventricle
2. Ventricular septal defect is large and located beneath the pulmonary artery

Normal Heart