Definition, Classification, Differential Diagnosis and Therapeutic Approach of Cardiac Outpouchings in Clinical Practice

Cardiac outpouchings encounter a broad cluster of distinct congenital or acquired anatomic entities, whose knowledge is still poorly widespread in clinical practice. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview focusing on definition, classification, differential diagnosis and therapeutic approach of cardiac outpouchings in clinical practice. The material reviewed was obtained from the MEDLINE (PubMed) and EMBASE search up to March 2021. We searched for the following keywords (in Title and/or Abstract): (“cardiac” OR “heart”) AND (“outpouching” OR “outpouch” OR “aneurysm” OR “pseudoaneurysm” OR “false aneurysm” OR “diverticulum” OR “herniation”). All available high-quality resources written in English containing information on epidemiology etiopathogenesis, clinical findings, diagnosis and therapeutic strategies of cardiac outpouchings, from prenatal to geriatric age range were investigated. Out of the 378 papers initially retrieved, 165 duplicates and 84 records in languages other than English were excluded. 76 of the 129 remaining articles were incorporated into our research material based on the following inclusion criteria: a) peer-reviewed articles, b) relevant to the research topic, c) employing standardised diagnostic criteria, and d) reporting raw prevalence data. The location, morphologic features, and tissue characterization of cardiac outpouchings were discovered to have a major effect on recognition and differential diagnosis in clinical practise. Therefore, careful recognition of cardiac outpouchings plays a pivotal role in order to provide the most appropriate clinical management and decision-making strategy.