[Congenital coronary fistulae. Comments on 9 surgical cases]

The authors relate their experience concerning the surgical correction of congenital coronary fistula. Between May 1971 and June 1986, 9 patients (4 boys and 5 girls) aged from 17 days to 49 years were operated upon at the Division of Cardiac Surgery of Bergamo (Ospedali Riuniti). All the patients, except three who were asymptomatic, showed early cardiac failure or dyspnoea on effort and angina in the elderly. At the physical examination a continuous murmur was heard in 8 cases; the chest x-ray showed significant cardiomegaly and on the electrocardiogram a right/left ventricular hypertrophy pattern was detected in 5 patients. All the patients underwent cardiac catheterization and a coronary angiography. The left-to-right shunt ranged from 60% to 250% of the cardiac output. The anomalous communication affected the right coronary artery in 7 cases and the left in 2, opening into the right atrium in 4 patients, into the right ventricle in 3 and into the pulmonary artery in 2. All patients but one, in whom division and suture were the only necessary procedures, underwent correction by means conventional cardiopulmonary by-pass with moderate hypothermia. In 3 cases closure through the coronary artery was preferred, in 1 through the right ventricle and in 2 transpulmonary. There was only 1 late death which occurred in a 3 year-old patient due to renal failure. After a mean follow-up of 6 years, 7 patients are to be asymptomatic while 1 patient had to be reoperated for a significant residual shunt.