Patient
Information
Innocent Murmurs
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People often worry when they hear that their child has a heart
murmur. Happily, most heart murmurs in children are perfectly
normal. We call such murmurs “innocent murmurs” or “functional
murmurs”, meaning that they are normal sounds coming from the
heart that do not suggest. Examples
include the Still's
murmur, PPS murmur and venous hum.
What
causes them?
A heart murmur is any sound that the heart makes. Innocent
murmurs are caused by the normal flow of blood through the heart,
valves and blood vessels.
Who has
them?
Innocent murmurs may occur in as many as 40% of all children. Most
of them tend to come and go over time, and most go away by young
adulthood.
What does it
mean?
It is very important to understand that an innocent murmur is
perfectly normal. It does not suggest any type of heart disorder.
Children with innocent murmurs can play sports just like any other
normal child, and do not require special medical treatment when they
go to the dentist or have other medical procedures. In fact, it is
perfectly fine not to mention this murmur when one is filling out
forms for insurance companies, school sports clearance, and dental
visits. Finally, it is not generally necessary for a child with an
innocent murmur to have additional visits with a cardiologist unless
they are under a year of age, in which case one additional visit is
sometimes recommended just because a lot of changes take place in a
child’s heart over the first year of life.
Questions?
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any additional
questions about your child’s heart.
Web
Links
Here are some Internet links that might be helpful. They look pretty good, but I cannot vouch for their
accuracy or quality. As
always with the Internet, browser beware!
American
Heart Association: Innocent Murmurs
http://www.americanheart.org/Heart_and_Stroke_A_Z_Guide/imurm.html
American
Academy of Family Physicians - Heart Murmurs in Children--What
Parents Should Know
http://www.aafp.org/afp/990800ap/990800f.html
iVillage:
Are Infant Heart Murmurs Common?
http://www.homearts.com/depts/health/38docs31.htm
The
Nemours Foundation: Heart
Murmurs
http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/heart/murmurs.html
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