Horseshoe lung is an exceedingly rare congenital malformation, characterized by unilateral pulmonary hypoplasia together with a midline isthmus producing fusion of the tissues of the lower lobes. It is frequently associated with other cardiac and extracardiac anomalies. We report an infant with a variant of the horseshoe lung with partial anomalous venous connection of intracardiac type, ventricular septal defect, and persistent left superior caval vein. There was no pulmonary hypoplasia.

A central polytetrafluorethylene shunt was constructed in a 13-year-old boy after previous placement of a Waterston-Cooley shunt. Because of excessive leakage of serous fluid from the prosthesis, the boy required a second operation when the shunt was wrapped with absorbable collagen hemostat (Novacol FibrillarTM). The leakage stopped suddenly and the boy was discharged home after one week. Follow-up at four months shows no pericardial effusion and good function of the shunt.

Apart from its original use for closing an open duct, the Rashkind ductal occluder has been used to close a variety of other defects. We report successful use of this device to close a residual aortopulmonary window persisting after corrective surgery had been carried out at the age of six months.

We report two patients in whom an initially completely closed arterial duct reopened 6–12 months after implantation of the Rashkind USCI® umbrella. We are not aware of any other reports of this occurrence. No obvious reason could be found for the recanalization.

CRITICAL STENOSIS OF BOTH PULMONARY AND AORTIC valves is an exceedingly rare congenital combination.1−3 In recent years, balloon dilation of these valves in isolation has been reported with good results in children, infants and even newborns.4−6 We now report successful concurrent percutaneous balloon dilation for severe congenital pulmonary and aortic valvar stenosis in an 18-month-old child.