Origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery in older adults.

Origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery is usually a serious clinical problem; untreated, it often causes death. Usually the condition becomes symptomatic early in life, but occasionally symptoms do not manifest until later in childhood. A smaller group will not have symptoms until early adulthood. Rarely, this lesion may be asymptomatic for decades. The reports in the literature and our experience with surgical correction of this condition in patients in their sixth and seventh decades of life are described. One patient is the oldest reported in the world literature to have this condition.