The heart is a brilliant muscle that is made up of two atrium and two ventricles. What happens, though, when there is a hole connecting the two ventricles when they should not be connected? Eisenmenger’s Syndrome is an instance when there is a hole between the left and right ventricle which causes blood that has already gone to the lungs to flow mix with blood that has not gone to the lung, which causes less oxygenated blood to get to the body. Due to this mixing of the blood and there being a lack of oxygen for the body, there appears a slightly blue tint to the skin of a person that has Eisenmenger’s Syndrome.
When the high pressure oxygen rich blood pumping ventricle, the left one, intermingles with the low pressure lack of oxygen blood in the right ventricle, you have a left to right shunt. This allows for a much higher flow of blood into the pulmonary circulation which causes more pressure on the lungs. This pressure in the pulmonary circulation is called pulmonary hypertension.
Pulmonary hypertension over time can cause damage to the pulmonary blood vessels. The pressure in the lung vessel will continue to rise slowly and the damage will continue to occur. The walls of the pulmonary vessels can become thick, hardened and sometimes blocked. When this does occur, the irreversible situation called Pulmonary Vascular Disease can appear. When you have this, you are stuck with it, and there is nothing for you to do to prevent it.
In general, this right to left shunt previously mentioned and the pulmonary hypertension is what makes up Eisenmenger’s Syndrome. For a person with the previously mentioned problems, they can have a blue tint to their skin, which is a common trait of an Eisenmenger’s Syndrome patient. The syndrome can develop with many different types of heart defects, but the most common type of the syndrome is ventricular septal defect.
There are quite a few symptoms that someone might get if they do have Eisenmenger’s Syndrom. If you begin to witness these syndromes, it is advised that you see a health care provider so that you can get the necessary things done. Some of these symptoms are fainting, fatigue, chest pains, palpitations, breathlessness when doing things, and coughing up blood. Furthermore, there can be the cyanosis, which is the blue tint to the skin, especially the tips of the body. This occurs because there is not enough oxygen getting into the body.
Many other things can occur due to Eisenmenger’s Sydrome. One such thing is stroke, which could cause severe neurological problems and could even cause death. A few other things that can occur are iron deficiency anemia, bleeding disorders, and kidney failure. There are other things that can occur however these seem to be some of the bigger ones caused by Eisenmenger’s Syndrome.
Surgery to occur once the Eisenmenger’s Syndrome has developed is not possible and can cause severe problems for the person. The key to helping a person with Eisenmenger’s Syndrome is to not fix it, but to monitor it and prevent further problems from occurring for that person. A transplant can occur for you, but that is dangerous and there are only about fifty heart and lung transplants each year. Therefore, your best bets are to just have it monitored and prevent future problems from arising.
