Anatomy of Functionally Single Ventricle

Abstract

Hearts that have previously been called univentricular hearts, or single ventricles, can be described as having a univentricular atrioventricular connection. Most such hearts have two ventricular chambers, albeit one is small and incomplete—lacking an inlet component. The atriums of these hearts connect only to one of these ventricular chambers, which is usually the larger and dominant ventricle. Other hearts, with biventricular atrioventricular connections, may have hypoplasia of one ventricle, making it impossible to restore a biventricular circulation and such hearts are functionally univentricular. The term “functionally single ventricle” (or functionally univentricular heart) encompasses both these categories of malformation.