Annex A > Chapter 3 - Developments in the UK, in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Congenital Heart Abnormalities in Children, 1984-1995 > An outline of some of the types of congenital heart disease > The normal heart
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The normal heart
34 Figure 1 and subsequent diagrams show the heart as viewed from the front of the patient, so that all the structures that are on the right side of the patient are on the reader's left, and vice versa. In the normal heart, the left ventricle pumps blood, rich in oxygen, into the aorta which then gives branches known as arteries to all of the body. The oxygen is taken up by the muscles and organs of the body, and the blood with reduced oxygen then flows back to the heart in the veins which lead to two larger veins, the superior and inferior vena cava, and then into a chamber of the heart, the right atrium. The blood then flows into the right ventricle, which pumps it into the pulmonary artery, and into the small blood vessels in the lungs. As the blood passes through the lungs it absorbs oxygen and then returns to the left atrium of the heart. It then flows into the left ventricle which again pumps the oxygenated blood through the aorta to the body. Within the heart are valves which ensure that blood normally flows from atriums to ventricles, and from left ventricle to aorta, and from right ventricle to pulmonary artery, and does not flow backwards into the chamber from which it had originated or had been pumped. In all the diagrams, it is convenient to show the blood rich in oxygen as pink, and the blood from which oxygen has been extracted as blue.
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