What Are Common Vascular Rings and Slings?

Discussion Vascular rings and slings are not that common a congenital heart problem (about 1% of all congenital heart defects), but do occur and arise from abnormal embryological development of the major vascular structures. Embryologically the great vessels and their major branches arise from the aortic sac. The aortic sac forms two horns – a right and a left. These horns then form aortic arches. The aortic arches with their paired branches then course into the pharyngeal arches. Initially these aortic/pharyngeal arches have symmetric vascular pairs, but as development progresses they become asymmetric (basically due to structural regression) and normal or abnormal development of the vascular structures occurs. There are 6 aortic arches and the 4th and 6th are the most important for forming the major vascular structures: 1 – Maxillary artery, regresses early 2 – Hyoid and stapedial artery, regresses early 3 – Carotid arteries 4 – Right arch helps form right proximal subclavian artery. Left arch helps form part of aortic arch. 5 – “…[N]ever forms or incompletely forms and regresses.” 6 – “The right and left arches separate into ventral and dorsal segments. The ventral segments are responsible for the formation of the pulmonary arteries bilaterally. The left ventral arch also contributes to the formation of the pulmonary trunk. The right dorsal arch regresses. The left dorsal arch forms the ductus arteriosus, w...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news