Interatrial septal defect caused by blunt trauma in a heart donor.

A50-year-old man was accepted as a multiorgan donor. The cause of death was cranioencephalic trauma. No pathological antecedents were found. Transthoracic echocardiography showed neither valvular nor contractility abnormalities. Cardiectomy was performed as usual. A traumatic interatrial septal defect was found in the donor heart preparation before transplantation (Figure 1). It did not involve the foramen ovale (Figure 2). The donor heart was not used. Atrial septal defect due to blunt trauma is rare. Only 10 cases of atrioseptal defect due to blunt trauma have been reported in the English-language medical literature, and this is the first one described in a multiorgan donor. Therefore, it is a very uncommon cause of exclusion of a hemodynamically stable heart donor. In summary, inspection of the atrial septum in a heart donor after cardiectomy is mandatory, especially in countries like Spain, where echocardiography in the heart donor is not always performed by an experienced echocardiographer.