Intraluminal shunt technique in systemic to pulmonary arterial anastomosis for severely cyanotic patients.

One hundred and seventy two cases of systemic to pulmonary arterial shunt operation have been carried out for congenital cyanotic heart diseases since 1953. Recently shunt operation has been carried out exclusively on patients with complex cardiac malformations and low pulmonary blood flow in the young age group. During the course of shunt operation on such patients the anastomotic site of pulmonary artery is completely excluded. Particularly in severely cyanotic patients, oxygen deficiency develops during anastomosis. We encountered one case who had severe hypotension during anastomosis followed by bradycardia and cardiac arrest. Since this episode in order to avoid the tragedy intraluminal shunt has been used during shunt operation for the five severely cyanotic patients. Intraluminal shunt has few perioperative complications and the technique is easier than that of extracorporeal circulation. Indications and the method of this technique are discussed in this paper.