Sometimes, children are born with heart abnormalities. Simple
conditions such as innocent heart murmurs require no specific
treatment and are generally outgrown by adulthood, while more
complicated problems may require surgical repair. There are at
least 15 fairly common congenital (kon-GEN-it-all) heart defects
for which surgery is often recommended. Generally, the surgery
is designed to restructure any part of the child's heart or
related blood vessels that are malformed. For example, although
babies are born with an opening between the major heart and lung
blood vessels, this passageway normally closes within a few
hours of birth. Sometimes, a hole is found in the wall or septum
(SEP-tum) separating the heart's left and right sides. A hole in
the heart prevents normal blood supply from reaching the body
and allows oxygenated blood to mix with un-oxygenated blood.
Another common pediatric heart abnormality involves obstruction
in either the heart valves or its vessels, preventing sufficient
blood supply to