User:Mariachiara Spagnuolo

Rastelli procedures After fifty years from his death, the name Giancarlo Rastelli is still used in many wards of Cardiology and Paediatric Cardiac surgery worldwide due to the impact of his scientific discoveries, still used during surgeries. Rastelli was the author of 100 scientific publications in this field and he is still renowned nowadays for two surgical procedures named Rastelli 1 and Rastelli 2 and for the classification of a particular kind of cardiopathy. Paediatric cardio surgery is characterized by congenital heart diseases that can display also in severe forms since birth. The field of congenital heart diseases is still in expansion nowadays because predict, diagnose and cure them is difficult and as a cardio surgeon, Rastelli devoted himself to their treatment. Chronologically his first discovery was the anatomical description and classification of a particular kind of heart disease named atrioventricular canal. The atrioventricular canal represents 3-5% of heart diseases which originates from an embryological ventricular septal defect of the cardiac cavity. In patients affected by this condition, there is a communication between the right and left sides of the heart at the level of the atria and ventricles. In addition, the two atria are in communication with the two ventricles through a single common valve, instead of two distinct ones. Rastelli identified three subtypes of heart diseases, according to the differences of the atrioventricular valve, dividing patients into type A, B or C. At the end of late ’60, two articles have been published: the first one on November 1967 on the “International Cardiovascular Society” and the second one published on July 1968 on JAMA. The truncus arteriosus is a type of congenital heart disease characterized by a lack of formation of the two main vessels that in normal conditions bring the blood from the heart to the lungs and to the rest of the body. Due to embryological defects, in patients affected a unique vessel carries the blood either to the lungs either to the other organs and tissues. The innovation of Rastelli’s group consisted in improving an already pre-existent surgical technique by introducing extracardiac conduct from the right ventricle to the pulmonary artery. The technique evolved into an operation applicable to a great variety of cardiac anomalies including those children born with transposition of the great arteries (TGA), ventricular septal defect (VSD), and pulmonary stenosis.