Vasseur Bernard G, Anderson Mark B, Freudenberger Ronald S
Department of Surgery, Division of Thoracic Surgery, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, 1Robert Wood Johnson Place, New Brunswick, NJ 08903-0019, USA.
J Heart Lung Transplant. 2004 Aug;23(8):1008-9. doi: 10.1016/S1053-2498(03)00234-1.
We report the case of a 47-year-old man who underwent orthotopic heart transplantation for valvular cardiomyopathy. At the time of cardiac catheterization we identified an anomalous origin of the donor left main coronary artery from the right coronary sinus of Valsalva. To decrease the risk of left main coronary artery compression during re-implantation of the transplanted heart, we performed a careful geometric arrangement of the aortopulmonary artery angle. This simple technical modification suggests that a heart with an anomalous left coronary artery may be safely used for organ donation.
