Cor pulmonale as a result of chronic nasopharyngeal obstruction due to hypertrophied tonsils and adenoids.

It is important to recognize that heart failure in young children can be due to causes other than congenital heart disease. A syndrome has recently been recognized in children which can lead to gross cardiac failure and yet can apparently be permanently cured simply by removing the tonsils and adenoids. It is the syndrome of cor pulmonale due to hypoventilation resulting from chronic nasopharyngeal obstruction. Since the first reports (Menashe, Farrehi, and Miller, 1965; Noonan, 1965) others have appeared, bringing the total of reported cases to 16 We present here the clinical, electrocardiographic, and radiological findings in 3 patients, together with the results of cardiac catheterization in 2 of them.