The anatomy of the tendon of infundibulum

The heart, as we know, is a muscular tissue supported by collagenous structures forming the fibrous skeleton of the heart. A structure by the name of the tendon of infundibulum appeared in the literature with no definite information about its structure or even its existence. The tendon of infundibulum was described as a strip of fibrous tissue structure situated between the aortic root and pulmonary trunk. Our study involved 30, formalin fixed, adult human hearts ranging from 18 to 81 years. Classical macroscopic anatomical methods were applied to observe macroscopically all the connections between the aorto-pulmonary trunk, together with serial transverse histological sections, through roots of the aorta and pulmonary trunk, using eosin-hematoxylin and van Gieson staining. All the hearts seemed to encompass many fascial bands attended by connective tissue. However these fascial bands are not concrete structures and cannot be termed tendons. In our investigation we have been unable to demonstrate macroscopically or histologically any structure which could be significantly approximating to the initial description of the literature. However, as far as we are able to judge, the term tendon of infundibulum has erroneously been introduced into many medical textbooks since the literature cannot still prove its existence.