A large basal left ventricular pseudoaneurysm following pediatric cardiac surgery

Abstract

Left ventricular pseudoaneurysm (LV-PSA) is a rare complication in children, usually developing after cardiac surgery, percutaneous procedures, infections, or trauma. Herein, we report a case of large basal submitral LV-PSA in a 36-day-old baby, detected 26 days after cardiac operation for hypoplastic arch, aortic coarctation, and small ventricular septal defect. No complications occurred in the first postoperative course, and early postoperative echocardiograms were normal. Despite large dimension of pseudoaneurysm, the baby presented with only mild tachypnea. The baby was successfully operated. Pseudoaneurysm, besides rare, could have an extremely broad and insidious clinical presentation and had to be considered in post-cardiac surgery follow-up echocardiogram at any time lapse.

Keywords

• complications
• computerized tomography
• congenital heart disease
• echocardiography