Particular forms of the ventricular papillary muscles

Abstract

Introduction. Many current authors show the importance of resuming the study on the papillary muscles, which play an important role in the contraction of the ventricles and in the proper functioning of the atrioventricular valvular system. Better knowledge of their morphology helps understanding their function, explaining the appearance of various existing pathologies. Material and methods In our study, we only used the dissection, at the level of the papillary muscles, studying their number and the forms that the single, double, triple or quadruple muscle bodies could present. Results The shape of the anterior papillary muscles of the right ventricle has the following morphological types: conical, cylindrical, arched (in an arch), irregular, fusiform, the shape of the letter “Y” inverted, the appearance of the letters “V” inverted, the letters “H” and “N” inverted. The posterior papillary muscles of the right ventricle had the following shapes: conical, cylindrical, irregular inverted “Y” shape, arched papillary muscle, inverted “N” shape. I encountered only one case in which the septal papillary muscles were represented by six well-represented conical muscle bodies. The left anterior papillary muscle had the following shapes: conical, cylindrical, “torch”, fusiform, irregular, inverted “N”, “N” and “H”. The posterior papillary muscle presented the following shapes: cylindrical, conical, fusiform, irregular, truncated, arched, “torch”, inverted “N” and “H”. Conclusions The great variability of the ventricular papillary muscles in terms of their shape leads [Mayo] to state that “no two complexes of papillary muscles have the same structure, as each case appears to be unique.”