Impact of hypoxemia and re-interventions on clinical outcomes after bidirectional cavopulmonary shunt.

OBJECTIVES

We sought to investigate the impact of early postoperative low arterial oxygen saturation on mortality and morbidity after bidirectional cavopulmonary shunt (BCPS).

METHODS

The medical records of all patients who underwent BCPS between 2013 and 2018 were reviewed.

RESULTS

A total of 164 patients were included in this study. Forty-seven patients underwent reintervention during hospital stay at median 7 days after BCPS. Before reintervention, 30 patients were intubated or had SpO2 of <75%. All re-interventions for Glenn pathway obstruction and 4 out of 5 venovenous coil embolization resulted in hospital discharge, while high mortality was observed after other re-interventions (atrioventricular valve surgery, thrombolysis, systemic ventricular outflow obstruction relief, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation implantation and diaphragmatic plication). Additional aortopulmonary shunt with pulmonary artery discontinuation was performed in 8 patients who showed severe cyanosis with median SpO2 of 59% under maximal ventilation support. In the univariable Cox regression analysis, the associated factors for mortality before total cavopulmonary connection were reduced ventricular function [hazard ratio (HR) 6.89, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.76-26.9, P-value 0.006], greater than moderate atrioventricular valve regurgitation (HR 5.89, 95% CI 1.70-20.4, P-value 0.005), SpO2 1 h after extubation (HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.80-0.96, P-value 0.004) and mean pulmonary artery pressure 1 h after extubation (HR 1.14, 95% CI 1.02-1.26, P-value 0.016).

CONCLUSIONS

After BCPS, unacceptable cyanosis persisted with various aetiologies. Low arterial oxygen saturation within 1 h after extubation is significantly associated with high mortality after BCPS.