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Situs solitus (from Latin 'usual site') is the medical term referring to the normal position of thoracic and abdominal organs. Anatomically , this means that the heart is on the left with the pulmonary atrium on the right and the systemic atrium on the left along with the cardiac apex.
Dextrocardia situs ambiguus presents a surgical challenge not per se due to associated cardiac malformation, but because achieving adequate exposure is difficult. Right sided structures such as right atrium, right ventricle and tricuspid valve are oriented posteriorly in dextrocardia situs ambiguus (in contrast to dextrocardia with situs inversus).
If the heart is swapped to the right side of the thorax, it is known as "situs inversus with dextrocardia" or "situs inversus totalis". If the heart remains on the normal left side of the thorax, a much rarer condition (1 in 2,000,000 of the general population), it is known as "situs inversus with levocardia" or "situs inversus incompletus".
Situs ambiguus (from Latin 'ambiguous site'), or heterotaxy, is a rare congenital defect in which the major visceral organs are distributed abnormally within the chest and abdomen. Clinically, heterotaxy spectrum generally refers to any defect of left-right asymmetry and arrangement of the visceral organs; however, classical heterotaxy requires ...
Neither levocardia nor dextrocardia are indicative of the orientation of the visceral organs, which can be in situs solitus, where the remainder of the organs are on normal side as well; or situs inversus, in which the viscera (stomach, liver, intestines, lungs, etc.) are on the opposite side as normal. The latter condition may or may not be ...
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This is not the case with some PCD-related genetic mutations: at least 6% of the PCD population have a condition called situs ambiguus or heterotaxy, where organ placement or development is neither typical (situs solitus) nor totally reversed (situs inversus totalis) but is a hybrid of the two. [6]
Situs inversus can be a part of primary ciliary dyskinesia (aka Kartagener syndrome) that has recurrent respiratory infections and male infertility. A simple chest xray is sufficient to diagnose dextrocardia, provided care is taken in marking the correct side of the radiograph. Ebstein's anomaly – Malformation of the tricuspid valve (see above).