Eisenmenger’s syndrome

Eisenmenger’s syndrome is the consequence of the reversal of a left to right shunt to right to left shunt. It occurs in patients with congenital heart diseases, especially persistent ductus arteriosus, ventricular septal defect and atrial septal defect. Basically in patients with left to right shunt the oxygenated blood from the left side of the heart gets mixed with the deoxygenated blood of the right side of the heart. Over a period of time, pulmonary vascular disease sets in and pulmonary vascular resistance goes up, ultimately resulting in pulmonary hypertension. When pulmonary arterial pressure goes up the pressure in the pulmonary circuit exceeds the pressure of systemic side. This is termed as Eisenmenger’s syndrome.