Clinical Spectrum of Ventricular Septal Defect in Children in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Introduction: The most prevalent congenital cardiac condition in children is Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD). The purpose of our study was to examine the clinical characteristics, size, and type of VSD in paediatric patients who were hospitalised at Pacific Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Umarda, Udaipur, Rajasthan India. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in the Department of Paediatrics, Pacific Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Umarda, Udaipur, Rajasthan India, during August 2023 to September 2024. A thorough history, anthropometric measurement and along with chest X-ray and ECG were done in all the cases. Anthropometric procedures were performed according to standard WHO procedure. Data was entered and analysed by using SPSS-16. Results: Regarding the clinical presentation, 55.5% of patients presented with cough and fever. Other presentation includes breathlessness (43.3%), feeding problem (37.7%), failure to thrive (37.7%) and fatigue (33.3%). Out of the thirty one patients of small VSD cases in the study, 12 (33.3%) patients were asymptomatic. The major signs in order of frequency were pansystolic murmur (100%), tachypnoea (51.1%), tachycardia (51.1%), crepitations (46.6%), subcostal retraction (37.7%), hepatomegaly (28.8%), and wheeze (26.6%) Conclusion: In our findings, Most of the patient of VSD was presented in infancy. Perimembranous was the commonest type of VSD. The clinical presentation of VSD varies from asymptomatic to severe symptoms, depending on the size of VSD. Patients of small VSD presented with mild symptoms or were asymptomatic. Moderate and large VSD mainly presented with severe symptoms. Complications like CCF, pulmonary hypertension, malnutrition and failure to thrive were mostly present in patient with moderate-to-large VSD.