diff --git a/monai/apps/generation/maisi/networks/autoencoderkl_maisi.py b/monai/apps/generation/maisi/networks/autoencoderkl_maisi.py
index 6251ea8e83..86b4e68864 100644
--- a/monai/apps/generation/maisi/networks/autoencoderkl_maisi.py
+++ b/monai/apps/generation/maisi/networks/autoencoderkl_maisi.py
@@ -232,6 +232,10 @@ def forward(self, x: torch.Tensor) -> torch.Tensor:
         if self.print_info:
             logger.info(f"Number of splits: {self.num_splits}")
 
+        if self.dim_split <= 1 and self.num_splits <= 1:
+            x = self.conv(x)
+            return x
+
         # compute size of splits
         l = x.size(self.dim_split + 2)
         split_size = l // self.num_splits