The repair of ventricular septal defects is performed under general anesthesia. The skin is first cut in the middle of the patient’s chest to separate the sternum. Extracorporeal circulation is established before the heart is opened. After the extracorporeal circulation is established, drugs are injected to stop the heart. The surgeon cuts through the right atrium or pulmonary artery and performs the repair of the ventricular septal defect under direct vision. There are two methods of repair: one is direct suturing; the other is patch repair. The former is indicated for smaller diameter perimembranous ventricular septal defects, while the latter is indicated for larger diameter perimembranous ventricular septal defects and all subpulmonary ventricular septal defect defects. The patch repair is performed with both synthetic polyester patches and pericardial patches taken from the child’s own heart. The right atrial or pulmonary artery incision is sutured after the ventricular septal defect is repaired. Once the heart is beating normally, the extracorporeal circulation can be removed. The sternum is closed with wire or absorbable sutures (in younger children, absorbable sutures have gradually replaced wire due to their advantages of less trauma and less impact on future life) and the skin is sutured and then transferred to the intensive care unit. The whole procedure also involves a series of steps such as anticoagulation and hypothermia. Trivia: What is a GORE-TEX patch? GORE-TEX patches are made of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE), which is purely inert, has a very strong biological suitability and does not cause rejection by the body. It is widely used in artificial blood vessels and patches regenerated from soft tissue and in surgical sutures for vascular, cardiac, general and plastic surgery. In the surgical treatment of congenital heart disease, Gore-Tex patches are often used to repair ventricular septal defects, atrial septal defects, etc.