Right ventricular dysfunction in acute ventricular septal defect

Eight patients with acute ventricular septal defect (VSD) receiving early intra-aortic balloon augmentation, cardiac catheterization, and open-heart surgery are described. Because of the large shunts in this group of patients, there was visualization of the right ventricle during left ventriculography which was adequate for qualitative analysis. The following were noted: (1) All patients had severe right ventricular (RV) dysfunction angiographically. (2) RV akinesis noted on angiography was more extensive than the surgical description of RV infarction, although all patients had biventricular infarction at surgery. (3) The RV dysfunction was the major cause of death (two cases) or a contributing factor (three cases). (4) RV papillary muscle rupture was identified in one case.