Prenatal dextrocardia: cardiac and extracardiac anomalies in series of 18 cases from a single unit

Introduction
Identification of incidence of dextrocardia and the most common concomitant disorders in situs solitus and situs inversus.

Material and methods
This was a retrospective study that was conducted during the last 10 years (2009–2019) with n = 18 fetuses with dextrocardia. We analysed coexisting cardiac and extracardiac anomalies.

Results
Fifty percent of the fetuses were female. There were nine (50%) fetuses with situs inversus, followed by eight (44.4%) with situs solitus and one (5.56%) with situs ambiguus. Normal heart anatomy was found in four fetuses (44.4%) with situs inversus and in two (25%) with situs solitus. Extracardiac anomalies were found in eight fetuses (100%) with situs solitus, two fetuses (22.2%) with situs inversus, and one (100%) with situs ambiguus

Conclusions
Fetuses with dextrocardia are more likely to have situs inversus and normal heart anatomy. The most common cardiac anomalies in both types of situs were ventricular septal defect and pulmonary atresia. In comparison with postnatal examination of patients with dextrocardia, normal heart anatomy is apparently more often diagnosed prenatally than postnatally, and more often in situs solitus than in situs inversus. However, regardless of the time of diagnosis, the incidence of cardiac abnormalities varies according to the type of situs, with a prevalence of situs solitus.