Successful Pregnancy in a Patient with Eisenmenger's Syndrome (atrial Septal Defect with Shunt Reversal ).

MAUDE ABBOTT (1936) stated that the term Eisenmenger complex was used by her, for want of a better, to designate an unusual combination of VSD with dextroposition of the aorta without pulmonary stenosis or hypoplasia-first diagnosed during life by Von Schrotter and reported by Eisenmenger (1897). Wood (1950) suggested that pulmonary hypertension with reversed aorto-pulmonary, interventricular or interatrial shunt might be called acquired Eisenmenger's syndrome because it is indistinguishable from Eisenmenger's complex. In his Croonian lectures on the syndrome (1958) he elaborated on this theme and used the term Eisenmenger syndrome for the clinical condition as a whole, the term Eisenmenger complex being reserved for the variety where shunt was through a ventricular septal defect, which was described first by Eisenmenger (1897). The nomenclature used by Wood (1958) does not appear to have gained wide acceptance. Taussig (1960) states that it is advisable to regard the Eisenmenger complex as a syndrome defined as a heart with a large VSD, increased pulmonary blood flow and high pulmonary pressure. Burwell and Metcalfe (1958) describe pregnancy in a case of acyanotic Eisenmenger's complex. (Shunt through a VSD.) Carter (1948) mentions pregnancy and abortion in a case of Eisenmenger's syndrome-which he defines as a ventricular septal defect and dextroposed over riding aorta.