Complete Thoracic Ectopia Cordis in Two Lambs

Abstract

Cardiac congenital defects related to inheritance and teratogenesis have been reported in veterinary species and humans worldwide. Among these, ectopia cordis (EC), characterized by an externalized heart through a cleft, is extremely rare in sheep. This report presents the diagnostic features of two cases of complete thoracic EC in newborn lambs. Clinical findings in the lambs, aside from the EC, were unremarkable. Both animals exhibited exteriorized hearts without pericardial coverage, delineated in the thoracic cleft by a fibrous ring of the pericardium and adjacent skin. Histologically, the epicardium was thickened by fibrous tissue in both lambs, with one animal also showing marked edema, hemorrhage, and neutrophilic inflammatory infiltration. The prognosis of EC in the lambs of this study was poor, with fatal outcomes despite attempts at surgical correction.