title: Use of internal thoracic artery as a systemic-pulmonary artery shunt.
abstract: Numerous technical and physiologic problems have been described with conventional systemic-pulmonary artery shunts. We report the case of a 1-year-old girl in whom the internal thoracic artery was used to create a systemic-pulmonary artery shunt after the failure of a previous Blalock-Taussig shunt. The internal thoracic artery as an alternative systemic-pulmonary artery shunt may offer several potential advantages and can be used successfully to improve cyanotic heart disease in selected cases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Hokkaido Children's Hospital and Medical Center, Otaru, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kashino
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Abe
mesh_terms: D000714:Anastomosis, Surgical / Q000379:methods; D003490:Cyanosis / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006345:Heart Septal Defects, Ventricular / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D010166:Palliative Care; D011651:Pulmonary Artery / Q000601:surgery*; D011652:Pulmonary Circulation; D011666:Pulmonary Valve Stenosis / Q000601:surgery; D012008:Recurrence; D012086:Reoperation; D013348:Subclavian Artery / Q000601:surgery; D013895:Thoracic Arteries / Q000637:transplantation*; D014188:Transposition of Great Vessels / Q000601:surgery