What causes a single-ventricle heart defect?
In some cases, a genetic problem may be associated with a single-ventricle heart. Most cases have no identifiable cause. How does it affect the heart? Underdevelopment of a ventricle can compromise blood flow to the body in some cases and the lungs in other cases. Without early intervention many patients die in infancy. In a small number of patients, the type of single ventricle results in a balanced circulation between the body and lungs, and survival through childhood is possible without surgery. How does it affect me? Almost all adults with single ventricles have had at least one, and in many cases, two or three operations in childhood. Most of these operations result in bluish (oxygen-depleted) blood from the veins going to the lungs without going through a pumping chamber (ventricle) and the ventricle that’s present pumping blood to the body. Problems can arise from inefficiency of blood going to and returning from the lungs because of the lack of a pumping chamber to the lungs. I
