The pericardium derives its name from the Greek term peri, meaning “around,” and kardia, meaning “heart.” It is composed of two layers. The inner layer (visceral pericardium) consists of a…

Introduction Holes between the ventricles can occur as isolated anomalies but are also seen in association with many other defects. For example, they are found as integral parts of entities…

Introduction Common arterial trunk is an uncommon congenital cardiac lesion. The essential anatomic characteristic is the presence of a common ventriculoarterial junction that gives rise to an arterial trunk. This,…

Introduction The essence of congenitally corrected transposition is the presence of discordant connections at both atrioventricular (AV) and ventriculoarterial (VA) junctions. This segmental combination (like transposition itself, Chapter 37 ),…

Historical Considerations When Siegal reexamined the original second century Greek text of Galen, he pointed out that Galen was familiar with many aspects of the fetal circulation even though he…

Introduction: Morphology This chapter deals with one of the most complex—and difficult to treat surgically—of all congenital cardiac malformations: tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia. We focus particularly on tetralogy…

The right ventricle (RV) can be hypoplastic in various settings. It can be small in the presence of deficient ventricular or atrioventricular septation, producing so-called left ventricular dominance. The chamber…

Introduction Lev and Eckner made the appropriate statement that no two cases of tetralogy are exactly the same. Although that is fundamentally true, the characteristic anatomy permits its instant recognition…

Introduction The so-called Rathke diagram, showing six pairs of arteries encircling the tracheoesophageal pedicle, is still frequently used to provide an understanding of the morphogenesis of abnormalities of the brachiocephalic…