Initial Palliation of the Pulmonary Atresia with Interventricular Communication

심실간 중격결손을 동반한 폐동맥 폐쇄증의 일차 고식적 수술

The ideal approach in the staged management of patients with pulmonary atresia has been a challenging problem and the result has not been always satisfactory. We reviewed our early result of initial palliative surgeries in fifteen cases of pulmonary atresia with interventricular communication Included are eight cases of simple pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect and seven cases of pulmonary atresia associated with other complex cardiac anomalies. The ages of the patients were less than one year except one. The morphology of pulmonary vasculature was highly variable and showed unfavorable conditions in most cases. Pulmonary artery was nonconfluent in two. Two-thirds of all cases showed significant problems such as juxtaductal stenosis or diffuse hypoplasia. The ductus arteriosus usually narrowed at its pulmonic end. Initial palliation was done by modified Blalock-Taussig shunt in six, central shunt with or without pulmonary angioplasty in five, right ventricular outflow tract [RVOT] reconstruction in three and direct connection of nonconfluent pulmonary arteries with bilateral cav-opulmonary shunt in one patient. There were 3 hospital deaths. Two of them underwent simultaneous repair of the associated anomaly of TAPVR. Among the six patients who received modified Blalock-Taussig shunt, three needed early second palliative procedure by central shunt, RVOT patch reconstruction and pulmonary angioplasty in each case, All patients who received central shunt showed marked clinical improvement. Among the twelve patients who survived the palliative procedures, two patients underwent total correction 13 months and 18 months after initial palliation respectively. We think that the choice of palliative procedure must be individualized according to the morphology of the pulmonary arteries. More experience and long term follow-up data are necessary to meet this challenging problem.