Normal Cardiac Anatomy

For all those concerned with diagnosis and management of congenital heart disease, a thorough understanding of normal cardiac anatomy is a pre-requisite in order properly to interpret the changes observed when the heart is congenitally malformed. Conceptually, the normal heart is a simple structure, composed of pairs of atriums, ventricles, and arterial trunks. A frequently stumbling issue for many learners is that the heart is frequently described as it has been removed from the chest and positioned on its apex. In order to appreciate recent advances, in which the heart is reconstructed in three dimensions, it is essential that all its components, like the remaining thoraco-abdominal organs, should be described as they are normally situated within the body. In this chapter, we review the salient details of cardiac anatomy as seen in attitudinally appropriate fashion. The topics addressed must be mastered by all pediatric cardiologists and congenital heart surgeons if they are adequately to understand the variations of this normal anatomy to be described in the remaining chapters of our textbook.