Understanding Congenital Heart Disease
What is a Congenital Heart Defect?
A Congenital Heart Defect is any structural abnormality of the heart present at birth.
How Prevalent are Congenital Heart Defects?
- CHD's are the most common birth defect in the United States.
- 40,000 infants are born per year with some form of congenital heart disease.
- It is estimated that around 2.4 million Americans are living with a CHD. (1.4 million adults, 1 million children)
- There are currently no active databases used to track congenital heart defects in the United States.
Why do chd's occur?
The unfortunate short answer is: We aren't entirely sure- yet. There are a few identifiable risk factors, but not all that account for the rising rates of Congenital Heart Disease.