ABSTRACT
Absence of the ductus venosus (ADV) is a rare vascular anomaly. Its prognosis depends on the pathway of the umbilical flow to the systemic venous circulation, and the presence or absence of associated structural or chromosomal anomalies, sometimes resulting in hydrops fetalis. In cases with isolated ADV in the absence of associated anomalies, survival rates are as high as 85%, depending on the shunt situation. Here, we report a patient with ADV and extrahepatic umbilical vein drainage with favorable outcome after intrauterine reversal of early signs of cardiac failure. Diagnosis was made after the appearance of moderate cardiomegaly in the 25th gestational week. Thus, in the case of cardiomegaly with or without further signs of cardiac failure, ultrasound imaging of the venous duct should be considered.
Subject(s)
Cardiomegaly/etiology , Heart Failure/etiology , Ultrasonography, Doppler , Ultrasonography, Prenatal , Umbilical Veins/abnormalities , Vascular Malformations/diagnostic imaging , Adult , Cardiomegaly/diagnostic imaging , Female , Heart Failure/diagnostic imaging , Humans , Infant, Newborn , Male , Pregnancy , Remission, Spontaneous , Umbilical Veins/diagnostic imaging , Vascular Malformations/complicationsABSTRACT
Congenital arteriovenous malformations are rare causes of congestive cardiac failure in neonates. The most common sites are in the head and liver, but other sites include the thorax, the abdomen and the limbs. The onset of failure is usually not in the immediate neonatal period, but later on in life, albeit that lesions such as the arteriovenous malformation of the vein of Galen, and other arteriovenous malformations in different locations which produce high flow can present early. We describe here the first case, to the best of our knowledge, of prenatal detection of an intrathoracic arteriovenous malformation producing neonatal cardiac failure, which was successfully treated by surgery postnatally.