Congenital cyanotic heart disease with situs inversus totalis: an autopsy case report

Sudden deaths because of congenital heart diseases are infrequently referred to the forensic pathologist for autopsy. Many of such deaths, if already diagnosed are released directly from the hospital without autopsy. Even forensic pathologists face a few difficulties in performing the autopsy on such infrequent cases, as they are not always updated with the anatomy of anomalies. While dealing with such cases, the concerned forensic pathologist is compelled to refer literature and textbooks again to understand the nature of developmental defects. This is especially so when dealing with cases of situs inversus accompanied by transposition of great arteries and other congenital cardiac abnormalities and variants such as single ventricle, double outlet right ventricle, Taussig-Bing variety etc. In the present case also, situs inversus with transposition of great vessels and other anomalies have been noted and studied.