Çetin GÜRLER, Semih BARLAS, Emin TİRELİ, Ertan ONURSAL, Cemil BARLAS
Congenital coronary arteriovenous fistula is a rare congenital cardiac pathology. Nevertheless,
the number of cases increase parallel with the increasing usage of echocardiography and selective
coronary angiography. A left-to-right shunt occurs as a result of the fistula. The location of the fistula is frequently within the right coronary artery and drains into right ventricle and right atrium.
Coronary sinüs, superior vena cava, pulmonary artery and left atrium are the less frequent drainage sites of the fistula. A coronary artery aneurysm may associate the disease. Correlated with the
level of left-to-right shunt, the majority patients are asymptomatic initially. Dyspnea and fatigue
are the most common symptoms and complications like congestive heart failure, bacterial endocarditis, myocardial infarction and rupture of he aneurysm may occur. Once the diagnosis is confirmed, surgical intervention should be undertaken before the increase of symptoms and before the
onset of complications. Transarterial or intracardiac repair of the fistula under cardiopulmonary
bypass or in well selected cases, ligation of the fistula without cardiopulmonary bypass can be carried out. This is the clinical report of 3 cases that have been admitted to our department with the
diagnosis of congenital coronary arteriovenous fistula.