Historical Notes: When was ventricular septal defect first defined?

Almost all of the cardiac, cardiovascular guidelines and the textbooks mention that one of the first clinical descriptions of ventricular septal defect was made by Henri Roger in 1879 (1). Henri Roger’s experience and skill as a pediatrician, combined with his interest in auscultation, led to his discovery of a simple but important interventricular communication which later became known as ‘’maladie de Roger’’(2). He described the clinical and auscultatory findings of 6 acyanotic patients and autopsy finding of a child with ventricular septal defect (1). We could not find any earlier descriptions about the definition of the ventricular septal defects in these texts. All of the authors agree in that ventricular septal defect was first described clinically by Henri Roger (2).