Our Patient's Summary of History and Physical

You have now completed the history and physical examination of a patient with a ventricular septal defect. Our patient is asymptomatic, with normal growth and development.

The dominant physical finding is a holosystolic murmur best heard at the lower left sternal edge. This murmur, characteristic of a ventricular septal defect, is due to turbulent flow across the defect, thereby, establishing it as restrictive.

Normal respiratory splitting of the second heart sound, with normal intensity of the pulmonic component, P2, indicated normal pulmonary artery pressure.

Absence of an apical mid diastolic filling murmur establishes that the defect is small in regard to the volume of flow across it.

The findings in total establish the presence of a small, uncomplicated ventricular septal defect.