Congenital Diseases in the Right Heart

A decade ago the right heart had been ignored in terms of its functional contribution to the circulation in acquired and congenital heart disease. While it remains a popular characterization, our understanding of right heart hemodynamics and pathophysiology, and their contribution to cardiac disease has matured immensely.Congenital Diseases in the Right Heart is a timely addition to the literature and represents the state of the art in right heart disease, bringing together experts in the field from across the world. The mandate for each author was to produce a state of the art contribution. Consequently, this book takes the reader from the most recent findings regarding the embryologic origins of the right heart, to the most practical aspects of management of right heart disease in acquired and congenital heart anomalies. Nevertheless, the right heart is not covered to the exclusion of its left-sided counterpart. Indeed, the last ten years have taught us that the right heart cannot be described in isolation. There is virtually no aspect of cardiac anatomy, physiology or disease that is not influenced by biventricular interactions. The understanding and therapeutic modification of such interactions will be a challenge for scientists and clinicians over the next ten years.This text is a distillation of thought and expertise that will provide the reader with an unique resource in evaluating and managing patients with right heart disease. It will consequently be of great importance to all involved in this discipline, including pediatric cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, intensivists, cardiac pathologists and researchers in anatomy, embryology and cardiology.