Abstract:

Objective: Corrective surgery for congenital heart defects is performed in the infancy period in recent years. However, palliative surgical approaches are still widely used in some complex cardiac anomalies with hypoplastic pulmonary arteries. A modified technique is used less commonly than central shunts and classical Blalock-Taussig shunts in these patients. We present our results with the classical Blalock-Taussig shunt operation in low birth weight infants with hypoplastic pulmonary arteries in this study.Material and Methods: We retrospectively evaluated our results with 9 classical Blalock-Taussig shunt patients, operated between January 2006 and December 2011, who were not candidates for corrective surgery because of their clinical status. Results: A total of 9 newborns (4 females, 5 males) were evaluated in this study. The average age was 13.89±7.89 days. All classical Blalock-Taussig shunt operations were done via left thoracotomy. We observed anuria in one patient and this patient died because of sepsis and multiorgan failure at postoperative day.139Conclusion: Choosing a palliative method is still a controversial issue in congenital heart surgery in low birth newborns with hypoplastic pulmonary arteries. Although central shunts seems to be a good alternative in these patients, the need for cardiopulmonary by-pass increases its operational risk. We have shown that this method can be used safely with very low complication rates in these patients

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