Dextrocardia?

Editorial Team / Admin · May 15, 2004

We cathed a patient last year who only had the dextrocardia, not the whole abdominal reversal. It was REALLY weird, to watch the catheters on fluoro, traveling up the aorta -- and going around the arch, from left to right, rather than from right to left! And then, finding the coronaries! One of our third-year fellows was the primary operator, and he actually did a good job, the case didn't really take any longer to do than normal.

Now I need to read up on the whole thing! Thanks for sharing! -- D

RNCENCCRNNREMTP · May 18, 2004

Hi!
I took care of an interesting pt this week. I haven't had the chance to research this yet, but he had Dextrocardia (sp??). His heart was on the right side. In fact, when I asked him about it, he said all of his organs in his chest were backwards. (ie. stomache on the right) I'm not sure of the exact name of it when all of your organs are like this, but when it's your heart..Dextrocardia (sp?). It was neat - (I'm a heart nerd) we had to place all of our heart leads on backwards, do Right sided EKG's. The doctors I talked to said it was only their 2nd case like this. What have been your experiences with this? :)

Dextrocardia is the term for when the heart is reversed in the chest. Situs inversus or situs inversus viscerum is the term used when there are multiple organs reversed. It is possible to have dextrocardia without other organ reversal. I have seen it twice in my career, pretty cool.