title: Surgical correction in infancy to reduce mortality in transposition of the great arteries.
abstract: The mortality for infants with transposition of the great arteries (TGA) prior to the introduction of medical and surgical septostomy was over 80% by 6 months of age. The mortality has fallen recently, due to balloon atrial septostomy (BAS), but still exceeds 25% by 6 months of age in major centers. The cumulative mortality rises to 40% by 1 year of age with or without additional surgical atrial septectomy. In our center, 12 patients with an average age of 3 months were operated on for interatrial baffle correction of their TGA under surface-induced deep hypothermia. BAS had been done preliminarily in those patients without an adequate atrial communication. Ten of these 12 patients (83%) survived. These patients have been followed up from one month to eight years with an average follow-up of over four years. Surgical correction during infancy offers a better survival rate for infants with TGA than does medical management, with or without palliative surgery.
mesh_terms: D004374:Ductus Arteriosus, Patent / Q000601:surgery; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007036:Hypothermia, Induced; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007423:Intra-Aortic Balloon Pumping; D008722:Methods; D014188:Transposition of Great Vessels / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*