Symptoms, Risk Factors, And Causes Of Congenital Heart Diseases

Edema

Individuals who experience edema may be affected by a congenital heart disease. The heart is responsible for pumping oxygen-poor blood into the lungs for gas exchange, and then back to the rest of the body once it has been re-oxygenated. The kidneys are responsible for carefully maintaining the body's balance of fluids, ensuring there is not too much or too little fluid in circulation. When the kidneys see there is excess fluid, they are responsible for filtering it out of the blood into the urine for excretion. However, the blood must be able to adequately reach the kidneys in order for fluid to be filtered from it. A heart with structural or functional defects cannot circulate blood throughout the body adequately. As a result, the kidneys are unable to filter out fluid from poorly circulating blood properly. Poor circulation also directly contributes to the functional impairment of the kidneys from a shortage of oxygen to the kidney tissues themselves. Excess fluid in the blood leeches through the small capillaries and into surrounding tissues as a homeostatic mechanism response to fluid overload or hypervolemia. This accumulation of fluids in the tissues of the limbs and other regions is called edema.

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