The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Vol 76, 718-720, Copyright © 1978 by The American Association for Thoracic Surgery and The Western Thoracic Surgical Association
Atrial septal defect associated with drainage of left superior vena cava to left atrium and absence of the coronary sinus
ED Foster, OR Baeza, MF Farina and RM Shaher
Atrial septal defect associated with drainage of the left superior vena
cava (LSVC) to the left atrium and absence of the coronary sinus is a rare
congenital cardiac complex. Management of the LSVC during operative repair
is usuall by one of three methods: (1) an intra-atrial baffle of
pericardium to divery flow from the LSVC to the right arrium and to close
the atrial septal defect; (2) division and reimplantation of the LSVC into
the right atrium; or (3) simple ligation of the LSVC. We will present an
example of this cardiac lesion for which successful repair was achieved by
end-to-side anastomosis of the LSVC to the main pulmonary artery when none
of the aforementioned methods for handling the LSVC was feasible.
