The role of the pulmonary vascular bed in congenital heart disease.

IFE expectancy and the degree of invalidism have been considered a function of the type of cardiac malformation in patients with congenital heart disease. When the abnormality involves a large communication between the ventricles or great vessels, however, the pulmonary vascular bed plays an important role in governing prognosis. The following group of congenital malformations are involved in this category : 1 . single ventricle without pulmonary stenosis, 2. large ventricular septal defect, 3. Eisenmenger complex, 4. atrio-ventricularis communis, 5. true truncus arteriosus, 6. aortic septal defect, 7. large patent ductus arteriosus and 8. patent ductus arteriosus associated with coarctation of the aorta. THEORETIC CONSIDERATIONS