Heart Murmurs_KH_Kids

Heart Murmurs

You know the sound of your heartbeat: lub-dub, lub-dub. In some people, there's an extra noise that the blood makes as it flows through the heart. It sounds sort of like the noise of water flowing through a hose. This sound is called a murmur (say: mer-mer).


The Heart and How It Works

The heart is a strong muscle about the size of your fist that pumps blood around the body. It sits inside the chest and is protected by the ribcage. The heart has four different areas, or chambers. These chambers are connected to each other by valves that control how much blood enters each chamber at any one time. The valves open and shut with every beat. As the valves shut to control the flow of blood through the heart, they make the sound you recognize as your heartbeat.

Depending on a person's age, the heart beats about 60 to 120 times every minute. Each heartbeat is really two separate sounds: lub-dub, lub-dub. Your heart goes "lub" with the closing of the valves that control blood flow from the upper chambers to the lower chambers. Then, as the valves controlling blood going out of the heart close, your heart goes "dub."

What Is a Heart Murmur?

A heart murmur is a whooshing sound between the beats that a doctor hears through a stethoscope. The whoosh is just an extra noise that the blood makes as it flows through the heart. Doctors usually discover murmurs during regular checkups or when kids see the doctor because they're sick.


What Happens If You Have a Murmur?


One common type of normal murmur is Still's murmur, named for the doctor who first described it. This murmur is most often heard in healthy children ages 3 to 7.



Even though most murmurs do not mean anything is wrong, sometimes a heart problem can cause a murmur. The heart may have a hole in it, a heart valve may leak, or a valve may not open all the way. If your doctor thinks your heart murmur could be due to a heart problem, you will need to see a pediatric cardiologist (say: pee-dee-at-rik car-dee-ol-uh-jist). This kind of doctor knows a lot about children's hearts.

What Do Doctors Do?



The doctor will take the information from the tests and exam and determine if your murmur is likely to cause a problem for you. A kid with a heart murmur might need to be careful about getting infections that could travel to the heart. To prevent this, your doctor may prescribe antibiotics for you to take before you get your teeth cleaned at the dentist or have any surgery.


In some cases, surgery is necessary to fix the problem. Depending on the problem, doctors can patch a hole in the heart, fix a valve, rebuild a blood vessel, or stretch open a blood vessel that's too narrow.


Reviewed by: Steven Dowshen, MD
Date reviewed: November 2009

Related Sites

American Heart Association
BAM! Body and Mind

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