Coronary transfer for complex looping and intramural variants in the arterial switch procedure.

Achieving a safe and accurate coronary transfer in the context of the precise geometry of the realigned great arterial connections is the essence of the arterial switch operation for transposition. Because the incidence of variant coronary patterns is not low, one needs to be familiar with techniques to transfer all types of coronary patterns when performing the arterial switch operation. Both closed and open techniques for coronary transfer have been widely adopted for the arterial switch operation. We routinely use the open technique for coronary transfer combined with a liberal use of trapdoor incisions. We demonstrate that this technique, with appropriate technical modifications, serves as a template for achieving accurate coronary transfer even in the context of complex looping and intramural variants.