NEW MORPHOLOGIC APPROACH TO THE CLASSIFICATION OF ANOMALIES OF THE AORTIC-ARCH

The purpose of this article is to simplify the description of congenit al anomalies of the aortic arch by developing a new classification sys tem. Nine selected cases were retrospectively analyzed with the curren t classification and the new classification. We found that single anom alies of position or caliber were easy to classify. When complex anoma lies were present classification was difficult, because only one aspec t of the anomaly gives undue emphasis to that feature. We conclude tha t a system that details each anomaly on the basis of its abnormality o f position and caliber, with reference to the normal situation, is an improvement. This new classification includes all of the potential aor tic anomalies and facilitates their analysis. It appears to be a logic al system that recognizes that cogenital aortic malformations are a co ntinuous spectrum from those anomalies purely of position to those pur ely of caliber.