Evidence is presented which indicates that shunting of small amounts of blood from right to left occurs frequently through interatrial communications. Such right-to-left shunts are of small magnitude in the usual case of atrial septal defect, but it appears that of the fractions of blood shunted, a greater proportion has originated from the inferior vena cava than from the superior vena cava.

Persistent left superior vena cava represents a congenital venous anomaly that poses a particular obstacle to the implantation of cardiac rhythm management devices. In the present report we briefly describe the rightsided implantation of a biventricular defibrillator in a patient with persistent left superior vena cava. We also briefly discuss the technically challenging procedures applied in s...

A baby girl born at 33 weeks' gestation weighing 2250 g presented with Sturge-Weber syndrome, features of the Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome, and absence of the inferior vena cava. We suggest that aplasia of the vena cava may be a feature of Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome when the capillary malformation affects the trunk.

A rare case of hepatocellular tumor extension in the right heart was reported. The patient presented with clinical signs of a vena cava superior syndrome. Computed tomography and transthoracic echocardiography demonstrated a large tumoral mass lesion extending from the left liver lobe into the inferior vena cava right atrium and right ventricle. The patient was treated with best supportive care.

An infant with complete atrioventricular canal, total anomalous pulmonary venous drainage into the left superior vena cava and an unroofed coronary sinus successfully underwent total correction. A homograft vein was used to connect the proximal left superior vena cava to the right atrium and can be recommended when other methods of correction of unroofed coronary sinus cannot be used.

Living-donor liver transplant for a big hepatocellular carcinoma located in the caudate lobe is challenging owing to dissemination of cancer cells during recipient hepatectomy. We report a case of living-donor liver transplant using the right side of the liver of a living donor combined with inferior vena cava interposition graft after en bloc resection of the liver and retrohepatic inferior ve...

BACKGROUND Large vessel sarcomas are rare tumours. Leiomyosarcoma of the inferior vena cava is the most common. About 300 cases have been reported in the literature. They tend to be large, and not develop metastasis. The prognosis of these tumours is poor. CLINICAL CASE An 81 year-old woman who complained of pain in the right flank, with no other symptoms. Abdominal computed tomography showed...

Excision of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with corresponding vena cava thrombus is a technical challenge requiring open resection and vascular clamping. A 58 year old male with a right kidney tumor presented with a thrombus extending 1 cm into the vena cava. Using a hand-assisted transperitoneal approach through a 7 cm gel-port, the right kidney was dissected and the multiple vascular collaterals ...

BACKGROUND It is known that respiration modulates cavopulmonary flows, but little data compare mean flows under breath-holding and free-breathing conditions to isolate the respiratory effects and effects of exercise on the respiratory modulation. METHODS Real-time phase-contrast magnetic resonance combined with a novel method to track respiration on the same image acquisition was used to inve...

Hydrogen peroxide causes vascular contraction and relaxation and contributes to the pathogenesis of hypertension. We hypothesized that the contractile state of blood vessels governs whether H2O2 causes contraction or relaxation. Hydrogen peroxide (1 micromol/L to 1 mmol/L) concentration-dependently contracted thoracic aorta and vena cava from sham normotensive and deoxycorticosterone acetate (D...