Anomalous pulmonary venous return.

are, however, generally lacking. For purposes of this presentation, 113 selected instances of anomalous pulmonary venous return encountered at Brooke General Hospital, Walter Reed General Hospital, and the Registry of Cardiovascular Pathology of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology have been reviewed and correlated with related material from the literature. To obtain completeness, tempered with brevity, the better known anomalies, while mentioned, are discussed only briefly, whereas the less well described transitional forms are discussed in detail. Highly schematic diagrams are used to portray some 27 variations in this theme. It is hoped the wide anatomic spectrum shown will promote understanding and interest. Figure IA illustrates the most frequently described variety of anomalous pulmonary venous return in which all or a part of the veins from the right lung drain directly into the right atrium. In two of 26 such instances the septum interestingly was intact. It should be emphasized that a normal connection does not always mean normal drainage. We, like others, have seen examples in which indicatordilution curves indicated normal drainage and at surgery the vein connected anomalously." 2 Figure iB, a situation encountered twice,