Double right coronary artery: a plea for a standardized nomenclature

Background: Double coronary artery is a rare anomaly with just a few cases reported in the literature. This anomaly started being reported recently with the wide use of coronary angiography. Before the advent of advanced imaging and catheterization facilities most of the available data came from the work of anatomists. Two patients were recently operated in our department. In the first patient the preoperative coronary angiography showed two right coronary arteries. In the second patient a double ostium of the right coronary artery was encountered intraoperatively. We wanted to know the incidence of this anomaly and the available data in the literature.

Methods: A PubMed research was conducted by using the term 'double right coronary artery'. More than 50 case reports and small case series were identified.

Results: The review of the literature revealed a lot of controversy and debate. When using the term 'double right coronary artery' authors do not always refer to the same entity. Different definitions and classifications have proposed without, however, gaining wide acceptance. In fact, there is a lot of confusion in the literature and cases that are rather common are presented as being 'extremely rare'.

Conclusions: Even though the real incidence could be over or underestimated due to variability in coronary angiography interpretation, clinicians must be aware of this entity in order to avoid troubleshooting during percutaneous coronary interventions and cardiac surgery. There is need for a close collaboration between interventional cardiologists, anatomists and cardiac surgeons in order to standardize the nomenclature.