Surgical Obliteration of a Coronary Artery Fistula to Right Ventricle

Aneurysms of the coronary arteries are not common. Since the first report of surgical correction of an anomalous coronary artery-intracardiac shunt by Björk and Crafoord¹ in 1947, however, the volume of literature dealing with this subject is growing, a manifestation of the increasing interest in the nature of the functional defect produced by these lesions. In a recent editorial, Edwards² reviewed the anomalies of the coronary arterial system and a plea was made that such anomalies be classified by functional rather than by older anatomical criteria. It was urged that those anomalies with communications between a coronary artery and a low-pressure cardiac chamber or vessel (an intracardiac arteriovenous shunt) comprise the important group of defects to recognize. These lesions carry a serious threat to the patient's health, yet the majority could be corrected by surgical interruption of the shunt. Steinberg et al.³ present a comprehensive review of