ABSTRACT

Truncus arteriosus is an uncommon congenital anomaly accounting for 1-4% of patients born with congenital heart disease. First described by Wilson in 1798, anatomic classifications were introduced by Collett and Edwards based on the presence of a main pulmonary trunk or the separation of the pulmonary arteries from the arterial trunk in 1949. A widely used classification has been the scheme developed by Van Praagh in 1965, which describes four subtypes with and without the presence of a ventricular septal defect (VSD). The detailed morphology is reviewed by Professor Robert H. Anderson in Chapter 39, “The anatomy of congenital cardiac malformations.”