Although a physician can often find a VSD by listening for a heart murmur (abnormal heart sound), the majority of VSD patients have no symptoms at birth. Therefore, the defect may be found when a person is three or four years old, or when a person is 30 or 40 years old. If symptoms do appear, they may include frequent chest colds and infections that, if severe enough, can stunt a young child’s growth and may even be fatal. Furthermore, the more congested the lungs become, the more susceptible a person is to pulmonary hypertension – a condition in which blood pressure in the lung’s blood vessels is high.

Symptoms of pulmonary hypertension include the following:

Eisenmenger syndrome is the name given when a VSD is present along with other conditions such as displacement of the aorta and enlarged muscles (hypertrophy) in both the right ventricle and pulmonary artery.