Congenital heart disease in patients with anomalous intrathoracic heart location.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze 107 patients with anomalous heart location, divided into 6 main group, depending on type of heart formation, location of cardiac apex and topography of abdominal viscera. In most of the patients the associated congenital cardiac defects that were diagnosed were extremely severe, multiple, and cyanotic. Biplane angiocardiography is the most valuable instrument in the diagnosis of anomalous heart location. Surgical treatment of congenital cardiac defects in the presence of anomalous heart location has specific features, but in most of the patients these anomalies did not interfer with the total correction of potentially correctable defects.