The heart is the muscular organ responsible for pumping blood throughout the body. It can operate defectively, due to genetic malformation, diseases, or damage due to ailments such as stroke. Given its vital function, any heart defect is serious, and some are life-threatening.

Heart defects that are present at birth are termed congenital heart defects. In the United States about 40,000 children are born with a heart defect each year. At least 35 different defects have been identified so far. Congenital heart defects stenosis, or the narrowing of heart valves, improper closing of valves so as to allow the back flow of blood, defect in valves, improper development of the entire left side of the heart, an electrical disorder in which the heart muscle does not recharge properly after a heartbeat, switching or cross-communication of the aorta and the pulmonary artery, and holes in various regions of the...