MIDLINE ONE-STAGE COMPLETE UNIFOCALIZATION AND REPAIR OF PULMONARY ATRESIA WITH VENTRICULAR SEPTAL-DEFECT AND MAJOR AORTOPULMONARY COLLATERALS

Traditionally patients with pulmonary atresia, ventricular septal defect, diminutive or absent central pulmonary arteries, and multiple aortopulmonary collaterals have been managed by staged procedures necessitating multiple operations. We have taken a different approach to this lesion, Between August 1992 and March 1994, ten patients aged 1.43 months to 37.34 years (median 2.08 years) at the severe end of the morphologic spectrum of this lesion underwent a one-stage complete unifocalization and repair from a midline sternotomy approach. The median Nakata index of true pulmonary arteries was 50.0 (range 0 to 103.13) and they provided vascular supply to up to nine lung segments (median 5 segments). The number of collaterals per patient ranged from two to five with a median of four. The collaterals provided vascular supply to a median of 15 lung segments per patient (range 11 to 20). Complete unifocalization was achieved in all patients with emphasis on native tissue-to-tissue connections via anastomosis of collaterals to other collaterals and to the native pulmonary arteries. In only one patient (37.34 years old) was it necessary to use a non-native conduit for peripheral pulmonary artery reconstruction. The ventricular septal defect was left open in one patient (5 years old) because of diffuse distal hypoplasia and stenosis of the pulmonary arteries and the collaterals. The postrepair peak systolic right ventricular/left ventricular pressure ratio ranged from 0.31 to 0.58 (median 0.47). There were no early deaths. Complications were bleeding necessitating reexploration in one patient, phrenic nerve palsy in three patients, and severe bronchospasm in three patients. Follow-up (median 8 months, range 2 to 19 months) was complete in all patients. One patient was reoperated on for pseudoaneurysm of the central homograft conduit and then again for stenosis of the left lower lobe collateral. After this last operation at 13 months after the initial repair she died of a preventable cardiac arrest caused by pneumothorax. The patient with open ventricular septal defect underwent balloon dilation of the unifocalized pulmonary arteries, with a current pulmonary/systemic flow ratio of 1.4 to 1.8:1, and is awaiting ventricular septal defect closure. One other patient underwent balloon dilation of the reconstructed right pulmonary artery, with a good result. All survivors (9/10) are clinically doing, well. This approach establishes normal cardiovascular physiology early in life, eliminates the need for multiple systemic-pulmonary artery shunts and use of prosthetic material, and minimizes the number of operations required. Long-term follow-up is essential to determine whether this approach will limit the need for further operations to central homograft conduit changes only.