Structurally Normal Heart
The heart’s main functions are to pump blood to the body to deliver oxygen, remove waste, and transport nutrients. A normal heart has four chambers called atria and ventricles. The two atria (right and left) are at the top of the heart and collect blood from the lungs and body. The ventricles are muscular chambers at the bottom of the heart that pump blood. The chambers are connected by valves that help direct blood flow.
Who May Need A Fontan?
The Fontan procedure is offered to children who are born with an abnormal heart. Specifically, those children who can’t have a surgical repair that results in 2 normal lower pumping chambers/ventricles with one ventricle pumping blood to the lungs and the other pumping blood to the body as described below.
THESE CHILDREN CAN BE BORN WITH:
- A missing ventricle all together;
- 2 ventricles but one is too small to pump blood effectively; or
- The 2 ventricles have many large abnormally positioned holes connecting them that a surgical repair will not likely results in 2 normal functioning ventricles.
The Fontan Procedure creates a pathway to send blue/deoxygenated blood to the lungs so that a pumping chamber/ventricle is not required to do this work. The remaining one ventricle is used to send red/oxygenated blood to the body. After the Fontan procedure, these children have a heart that functions with one pumping chamber/ventricle instead of 2, this is called a “functional single ventricle”.
