A criss-cross heart is an extremely rare congenital cardiac anomaly characterized by crossing of the inflow streams of the two ventricles and almost always associated with other severe cardiac diseases. In this article, a total of seven patients with criss-cross morphology were identified from the hospital records and clinical characteristics of these patients and associated congenital cardiac diseases were discussed in the light of the literature data. Age on admission ranged from one month to 13 years. Of the seven patients, three presented with cyanosis, three with murmur, and one with respiratory distress and heart failure. The visceroatrial situs was solitus in all patients including levocardia in five and dextrocardia in two. The atrioventricular connection was concordant in four patients and discordant in one patient, while double-inlet ventricle was present in two patients. The ventriculoarterial connection was concordant in four patients and discordant in one patient, while doubleoutlet ventricle was present in one patient and single outlet (pulmonary atresia) in another patient. Two patients underwent corrective biventricular repair, while one patient underwent bidirectional cavopulmonary shunting. Crisscross heart is an extremely rare and complex anomaly which should be kept in mind to recognize with echocardiography.

Keywords : Abnormal twisting; criss-cross heart; straddling atrioventricular valve; superior-inferior ventricles