Andersons pediatric cardiology 1057

Common Arterial Trunk Daniel J Penny, Diane E Spicer, Robert H Anderson Abstract Common arterial trunk is a rare congenital malformation of the heart The essential anatomic feature is the presence of an arterial trunk, which arises from the ventricular mass through a common ventriculoarterial junction, giving rise directly to the systemic, pulmonary, and coronary circulations In most centers, surgical treatment, the only appropriate current therapeutic approach, is now performed routinely in early infancy following only noninvasive preoperative investigations Operative mortality is now low, although it may be increased in patients in whom there are associated abnormalities In most cases, the surgical repair includes placement of a conduit as part of the reconstructed pulmonary outflow tract Because of this, patients must be followed indefinitely in a center that specializes in the care of those with congenital cardiac disease, as most will require procedures to address stenosis of the conduit in later life Keywords Common arterial trunk; Right ventricle-to-pulmonary artery conduit; Longterm follow-up; Chromosome 22 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, in turn, gives rise to the systemic, pulmonary, and coronary circulations In this chapter, we examine some of the details of this anatomic arrangement, the methods whereby the condition is diagnosed, and the techniques for its surgical treatment There are increasing data on the long-term outcomes for patients born with this condition and of the importance of lifelong surveillance, which will also be examined