The left ventricle, with its thickened myocardial walls, unlike the right ventricle has no measurable geometric shape. It has a conical apex and its function quantification, needs intensive, 2D, 3D and M mode transesophageal echocardiography, which is described in this review.

With increasing experience, neonatal cardiac surgery can be performed with excellent outcomes in developing countries with resource limitations. Infectious complications contribute significantly to morbidity and mortality, and improvements in infection-control practices should be emphasized to improve outcomes further.

Corrective cardiac surgery for selected critically ill infants with large ventricular septal defects, severe malnutrition, and pneumonia requiring mechanical ventilation is feasible and should be considered a viable management strategy.

Protein S (PS) along with activated protein C plays an important role in the down-regulation of in vivo thrombin generation. Its deficiency can cause abnormal and inappropriate clot formation within the circulation necessitating chronic anticoagulation therapy. The risk of developing thrombotic complications is heightened in the perioperative period in patients undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Heparin resistance is very rare in these patients, especially when antithrombin levels are near normal. Management of CPB in this scenario is quite challenging. We report the perioperative management, particularly the CPB management, of a patient with type I PS deficiency and incidentally detected heparin resistance, who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting with CPB.

No abstract