Sanjiv K. Gandhi, MD Division of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery, St. Louis Children's Hospital, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, Suite 5S50, 1 Children's Place, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. gandhis@wustl.edu.
Aortopulmonary window is a rare abnormal congenital communication between the pulmonary artery and the ascending aorta with intact aortic and pulmonary valves. Because pulmonary hypertension and premature death are the natural history of the uncorrected left-to-right shunt physiology that occurs with aortopulmonary window, surgical correction, which is the gold standard of treatment, should be offered to patients at the time of diagnosis, before the development of lung injury and irreversible pulmonary hypertension.