what is the percentage of someone developing situs inversus...US & world-wide?

Question

situs-inversus is a medical condition where a child is born w/ all (or most) major organs in reversed placement. Ex. Spleen is on right side, not left.

Answer 1

Overall, the incidence is about 0.01%, or one person in 10,000. But statists differ, since there is situs inversus totalis, and situs solitus with dextrocardia, and other variations.

Abstractly speaking, it is a group of interesting conditions associated with cardiac pathology, splenic abnormalities and Kartagener's syndrome.

Edit: Thanks, Yaybob. I guess there is a conspiracy to keep medical students humble. I tried to avoid that technique when I was a preceptor.

As a junior med student, I missed my first case COLD! I thought the x-ray tech mislabelled the chest X-ray, and I thought the EKG tech put the leads on incorrectly. Forty years later I still recall the look my preceptor gave me over his half-moon spectacles. It hurt worse than the low assessment he gave me. But it taught me a valuable lesson, always examine a patient very carefully.

Answer 2

About 1 in 10,000

From http://www.emedicine.com/radio/topic639.htm

"Situs inversus is present in 0.01% of the population"

[From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situs_inversus Situs inversus (also called situs transversus) is a congenital condition in which the major visceral organs are reversed or mirrored from their normal positions. The normal arrangement is known as situs solitus.]

EDIT - Hey Greydoc - The very first patient I ever examined, about 25 years ago, was a child with situs inversus. Of course, I wasn't told. They asked me if I heard the heart. This was done just to humiliate me.