Situs inversus

Situs inversus
Situs inversus causes the positions of the heart and lungs to be mirrored.
Specialty	Medical genetics
Causes	Genes
Frequency	0.01%

Situs inversus (also called situs transversus or oppositus) is a congenital condition in which the major visceral organs are reversed or mirrored from their normal positions. The normal arrangement of internal organs is known as situs solitus. Although cardiac problems are more common, many people with situs inversus have no medical symptoms or complications resulting from the condition, and until the advent of modern medicine, it was usually undiagnosed.

Situs inversus is found in about 0.01% of the population, or about 1 person in 10,000. In the most common situation, situs inversus totalis, it involves complete transposition (right to left reversal) of all of the viscera. The heart is not in its usual position in the left chest, but is on the right, a condition known as dextrocardia (lit. 'right-hearted'). Because the relationship between the organs is not changed, most people with situs inversus have no associated medical symptoms or complications.^[1]

An uncommon form of situs inversus is isolated levocardia, in which the position of the heart is not mirrored alongside the other organs. Isolated levocardia carries a risk of heart defects, and so patients with the condition may require surgery to correct them.

In rarer cases such as situs ambiguus or heterotaxy, situs cannot be determined. In these patients, the liver may be midline, the spleen absent or multiple, and the bowel malrotated. Often, structures are duplicated or absent altogether. This is more likely to cause medical problems than situs inversus totalis.^[2]