title: Superior repair: A useful approach for some anatomic variants of total anomalous pulmonary venous connection.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC) occurs when all the four pulmonary veins drain to the right atrium or to tributaries of the systemic veins. There have been various published techniques for the repair but none has been agreed on for the different anatomical variants that may be encountered during surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between January 2005 and June 2010 the data of 6 of 18 patients who had surgical repair using the superior approach were retrospectively reviewed.Three patients had long narrow venous stalk connecting the coronary sinus to venous confluence; two had the right pulmonary veins draining to superior vena cava (SVC) and left pulmonary veins to left lateral wall of SVC and one had an obstruction at entrance of Pulmonary Vein into venous confluence.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Five patients initially had the superior approach while one had transatrial with unroofing of the coronary sinus. Two had a concomitant Wardens procedure. The mean aortic cross clamping was 87.5 (60-125) min, the mean cardiopulmonary bypass time should have min as unit of 127.8 (100-180), the mean Intensive Care Unit (ICU) stay of 2.5 (2-4) days and the mean hospital stay 8.2 (7-9) days. One patient died at early post-operation from low cardiac outputand five had an uneventful post-operative course and had remained stable until date.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In our experience, the superior approach was an effective alternative approach for some anatomic variants of TAPVC that may be unexpectedly encountered during operation and also useful surgical approach for older children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Madras Medical Mission, Chennai, India. okontakelechi@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Kelechi E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Okonta
authors.forename: Vijay
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Agarwal
authors.forename: Umar
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Abubakar
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000714:Anastomosis, Surgical / Q000379:methods; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006325:Heart Atria / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011667:Pulmonary Veins / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000601:surgery; D011668:Pulmonary Veno-Occlusive Disease / Q000601:surgery*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014656:Vascular Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*