Some people are born with the heart slightly off-center to the right (instead of to the left) and marked by an anatomy completely mirroring that of a traditional heart: the atrium and the right ventricle, in fact, are on the left and the atrium and the left ventricle are on the right.
This curious condition - called dextrocardia - affects only 1% of the general population and is, for some, completely asymptomatic and, for someone else, a cause of various health problems and even serious complications.
But what exactly are these complications?
Some dextrocardial subjects suffer from chronic breathing difficulties, which induce a state of chronic hypoxia .
This condition of hypoxia - which causes a reduced availability of oxygen in the tissues - has various consequences, including cyanosis, persistent fatigue and a delay in pubertal growth and development.
Furthermore, some individuals with dextrocardia also have one or more holes in the interatrial septum (ie between the atria) or interventricular (that is, between the ventricles), holes that, in the long run, can determine the appearance of cardiac arrhythmias. Cardiac arrhythmias are alterations of the normal sinus rhythm of the heart.
Finally, the location slightly to the right of the heart may favor, in certain special cases, the appearance of obstructions at the intestinal level, which must be treated with extreme promptness.
