Atrioventricular Septal Defects

Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) plays an important role in assessing various types of congenital heart defects, as highlighted throughout this textbook, but it has an even more essential role in evaluating anomalies that affect the atrioventricular junction and atrioventricular valves. It is well recognized that the benefits of this technology are quite numerous and include those related to the diagnosis of and interventions for these defects, whether surgical or catheter-based. This chapter addresses the anatomical features that characterize the most common forms of the defects that involve the atrioventricular junction and focuses on the utility of TEE for intraoperative evaluation of these malformations during corrective surgery. The reader is referred to Chap. 9, which considers atrioventricular valve anomalies, to complement this discussion.