Total anomalous pulmonary venous connection history and symptoms

Associate Editor-In-Chief:; Keri Shafer, M.D. [mailto:kshafer@bidmc.harvard.edu] Priyamvada Singh, MBBS mailto:psingh@perfuse.org

Assistant Editor-In-Chief: Kristin Feeney, B.S. mailto:kfeeney@perfuse.org

 Overview- The clinical features in total anomalous pulmonary venous connection depends on the type of anatomic variant present in the patient. This in turn determines the amount of mixing between the pulmonary and systemic circulation

Symptoms
The total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC) can be divided into two types i.e. obstructed and non-obstructed.

In patients with obstructed TAPVC, pulmonary venous circulation drains into the systemic venous circulation. This causes increased returns to the right side of heart and pulmonary hypertension that can manifest as-


 * Cyanosis
 * Dyspnea
 * Pulmonary edema
 * Respiratory failure
 * Shock
 * Hypotension (decrease in the blood to the left side of the heart)

In the patients with unobstructed TAPVC clinical findings are quite similar to conditions with left-to-right shunting like-


 * Dyspnea
 * Difficulties in feeding
 * Failure to thrive

Mostly they are acyanotic on presentation.