Collateral Vessel Closure

Collateral vessels are abnormal blood vessels that connect the aorta with the pulmonary arteries. The aorta carries blood from the heart to arteries throughout the body. Pulmonary arteries are the vessels that transfer blood from the heart back to the lungs for oxygen.

Everyone has collateral vessels, but they're normally small and not in use. They become enlarged in some people with congenital heart disease. When a collateral vessel enlarges, it may let blood flow from an artery to an adjacent artery or it may carry blood downstream and then back to the same artery.

Collateral vessels can make the heart work harder and in some cases should be closed. These vessels can cause other medical conditions, such as myocardial ischemia, an insufficient blood supply to the middle muscular layer of the heart wall; congestive heart failure or the weakening of the heart; endocarditis, an infection of the heart's inner lining; stroke, caused by a lack of blood to the brain; and aneurysms, which are bulging or ballooning of a blood vessel wall. Collateral vessels affect children and adults and can be a congenital or acquired heart defect.

One of the symptoms of collateral vessels can be a heart murmur.

At UCSF Children's Hospital, our pediatric heart specialists are experts at diagnosing and treating collateral vessels. This condition is repaired in our Pediatric Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory using catheters, which are flexible, thin tubes, and tiny devices inserted into blood vessels.

For more information or to make an appointment, please call:
Pediatric Heart Center (415) 353-2008

For help finding a doctor, please contact our Physician Referral Service:

Reviewed by health care specialists at UCSF Children's Hospital.
Last updated May 25, 2007