Almost 3 quarters of a century ago, an experimental dog model, involving the electrocautery ablation of the free wall of the right ventricle (RV), served as the basis for the contention that the RV serves functionally as a passive conduit. Clearly, our understanding of the RV has evolved over subsequent decades, and the prognostic significance of RV dysfunction is now recognized in a wide array...

A 47 year-old female died after mitral valve replacement. Post-cardiopulmonary bypass right ventricle was not able to pump despite good left ventricular contractility. At microscopic examination, diffuse right ventricular fatty infiltration was found. We found no previous report of this pathology in patients with mitral stenosis