Congenital arteriovenous malformations are rare causes of congestive cardiac failure in neonates. The most common sites are in the head and liver, but other sites include the thorax, the abdomen and the limbs. The onset of failure is usually not in the immediate neonatal period, but later on in life, albeit that lesions such as the arteriovenous malformation of the vein of Galen, and other arteriovenous malformations in different locations which produce high flow can present early. We describe here the first case, to the best of our knowledge, of prenatal detection of an intrathoracic arteriovenous malformation producing neonatal cardiac failure, which was successfully treated by surgery postnatally.

Recurrent idiopathic pericardial effusion can be a challenging medical problem. Multiple medical interventions may yield minimal improvement. We describe a patient with an incessant pericardial effusion that responded to infliximab. The use of infliximab should be considered in the management of recurrent pericardial effusions resistant to other treatment modalities.

Anatomically corrected malposition is characterized by concordant atrioventricular and ventriculoarterial connection and parallel arrangement of arterial trunks. Left juxtaposition of the atrial appendages, a frequent association of this anomaly, alters the atrial septal plane. In this report, I describe the insertion of a device to close an atrial septal defect, as guided by transoesophageal echocardiography.

Congenital unruptured aneurysms affecting both the right and left sinuses of Valsalva are extremely rare. To the best of our knowledge, there has been only one previously documented case. We report here a patient presenting with congestive cardiac failure who also had unruptured aneurysms of both the right and left sinuses of Valsalva. The aneurysms produced obstruction of the outflow tracts of both ventricles, burrowing as they did into the muscular ventricular septum.

Inborn errors of fatty acid metabolism are important causes of reversible cardiomyopathy in infancy. Disorders in long chain fatty acid oxidation can lead to cardiomyopathy, as fatty acid beta oxidation is the major source of myocardial energy after birth. We present 2 cases of such disorders with cardiac manifestations during infancy, which responded well to a diet low in long chain fatty acids.