Which hearts are unsuitable for biventricular correction?

BACKGROUND

The surgical option of biventricular repair requires two ventricles, each fully capable of supporting the systemic or pulmonary circulation. The morphologic substrates that may preclude some hearts from biventricular repair need to be assessed.

METHODS

Heart specimens were reviewed to assess the morphologic mechanisms that produce an unbalanced ventricular mass and to identify features that would, potentially, be a contraindication for biventricular repair.

RESULTS

Hearts with solitary and indeterminate ventricles, and hearts with essentially solitary ventricles, often have associated abnormalities of venoatrial connections and arrangement of the atrioventricular valves. In the majority of hearts with univentricular atrioventricular connections, the rudimentary and incomplete ventricle of either right or left morphology may be too small to support either the systemic or the pulmonary circulation. Straddling with overriding of the atrioventricular valve, unbalanced atrioventricular septal defect, and gross hypoplasia of one of the ventricles in hearts with biventricular connections are other mechanisms producing ventricular imbalance, which could preclude biventricular repair.

CONCLUSIONS

The morphologic mechanisms that result in ventricular imbalance are mainly related to the sizes and morphology of the ventricles, septal malalignment, valvar morphology, and component make-up of the ventricles. These features will influence decision-making in considering the option of biventricular repair.