Anomalous Origin of the Left Coronary Artery

Abstract

Anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery is a rare and almost universally fatal form of congenital heart disease. It has usually been assumed that flow in the aberrant artery is from the pulmonary artery toward the myocardium and efforts at surgical correction have been directed at increasing the perfusion pressure or the oxygen content of pulmonary artery blood. Evidence is presented, that flow in the aberrant artery isintothe pulmonary artery and that ligation of the vessel at its origin should be carried out before irreversible myocardial damage has occurred.