Atrial septal defect (ASD)
Disease Information
Overview
An atrial septal defect (ASD) is a congenital heart defect (meaning that a baby is born with it) in which the wall that separates the baby’s upper heart chambers, or the atria, doesn’t close completely.
- occurs in 5 to 10 percent of all children born with congenital heart disease
- girls have ASDs twice as often as boys
How Children’s Hospital Boston approaches atrial septal defects
The Cardiovascular Program at Children’s is active in clinical and laboratory research, and all of our senior medical staff members participate. We receive millions annually in federal funding to continue and expand our research and innovations into reducing the numbers of babies born with congenital heart defects and treating them more effectively after birth.
Groundbreaking innovations that have come out of Children’s have made it possible to perform non-invasive heart surgery to repair some congenital heart defects.
