A heart murmur can sometimes be harmless and pose no risk to your health.
If there is a serious cause of a heart murmur, surgery or medications may help correct the problem.
This article describes the symptoms and causes of a heart murmur.
Richard Goerg / Getty Images
What Does a Heart Murmur Sound Like?
When listening through a stethoscope, anormal heartbeat will sound like “lub-DUB"as theatrioventricularheart valvesopen and shut.
Heart murmurs affect people of all ages from newborns to elderly adults.
A heart murmur can begin at any age and may change throughout a person’s life.
Many heart murmurs, called “innocent” murmurs, are not associated with any underlying heart problems.
Abnormal heart murmurs can be brought on by a variety of heart diseases.
The most common causes vary based on a person’s age.
Older Adults
Abnormal murmurs are most common among adults over 60.
Babies born with a heart murmur may have bluish skin, especially on the fingers or lips.
These are signs of a medical emergency.
Children with a congenital heart murmur may experience slow weight gain and be shorter than their expected height.
They often haveexercise intoleranceand will complain that they don’t like sports or gym class.
Young Adults
A murmur could be due to a structural problem not diagnosed in childhood.
Pregnant People
It is not common to develop serious heart disease during pregnancy.
Once the child is delivered, the heart murmur will disappear.
A heart murmur can be louder or last longer than otherheart sounds.
Others are quiet and difficult to hear.
Others still can come and go.
Generally speaking, a heart murmur is presumed innocent if you are younger and experience no other symptoms.
However, this is not always the case as some murmurs can get progressively worse over time.
For this reason, your healthcare provider may want to regularly monitor your heart sounds.
The same may apply if you are young and your heart murmur is especially loud or irregular.
How Is Heart Murmur Fixed?
Treatment and/or follow-up care will depend on the throw in of heart murmur you have.
Surgery
In some situations, emergency surgery may be necessary for a heart murmur.
Some children may have to wait until they are physically bigger before having a heart defect repaired.
Medical Management
There are some medical approaches for treating heart problems that cause murmurs.
Sometimes medications are used to prevent complications, but cannot treat the underlying problem.
The cause can usually be diagnosed with an echocardiogram and ECG.
Some heart murmurs are “innocent” and don’t cause any problems.
Others associated with heart disease usually cause symptoms and may require treatment with medications or surgery.
Harvard Medical School.Heart murmur.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Specific heart defects.
KidsHealth from Nemours.Heart murmurs.
American Heart Association.Abnormal and innocent heart murmurs.
2019;40(3):623-629. doi:10.1007/s00246-018-2036-z
March of Dimes.Congenital heart defects and critical CHDs.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Facts about hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
Ahmadipour S, Mohsenzadeh A, Soleimaninejad M.Echocardiographic Evaluation in Neonates with Heart Murmurs.
J Pediatr Intensive Care.
2018 Jun;7(2):81-85. doi: 10.1055/s-0037-1612614.
Epub 2017 Dec 18.
Begic E, Begic Z.Accidental Heart Murmurs.
2017 Aug;71(4):284-287. doi: 10.5455/medarh.2017.71.284-287.
2019 Mar;40(3):623-629. doi: 10.1007/s00246-018-2036-z.
Epub 2018 Dec 12.
