History

From 1958 to 1969, 1,280 patients (mostly children) with ventricular septal defects (VSDs) were admitted to the First Natural History Study of Congenital Heart Defects (NHS-1) after cardiac catheterization

Specific attention has been directed to data on ventricular septal defect (VSD), with an estimated incidence of at least 20/10,000 live births; about 10% of these children died before 15 years of age. There should thus be about 18/10,000 surviving school children with VSD, yet the most intensive school surveys show only about half this number.