A case of a persistent left vena cava superior with atresia of the right atrial ostium of the coronary sinus.

A persistent left vena cava superior with an atretic ostium of the coronary sinus was found during the routine dissecting course in the embalmed cadaver of an 83-year-old woman who had died from cardiac infarction. The left vena cava superior was very narrow in diameter (4 mm), originated at the lateral part of the left vena brachiocephalica and ran down between the venae pulmonales sinistrae and the auricula sinistra. The vena cava opened into the sinus coronarius of the heart, which terminated as a blind sac due to an atretic ostium. The vena coronaria sinistra as well as the vena interventricularis posterior drained into the sinus coronarius. Congenital atresia of the coronary opening is a rare malformation and is usually associated with other anomalies. The congenital ostial atresia could be the cause of a persistent left vena cava superior, which then takes over the drainage of the cardiac veins.