Right ventricular outflow tract reconstruction in patients with persistent truncus arteriosus - A 15-year experience in a single Japanese center

Background: The present study analyzes a 15-year experience of repairing persistent truncus arteriosus (PTA) with a consistent policy of right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) reconstruction (ie, direct anastomosis). Methods and Results: This retrospective study included 13 consecutive patients with PTA (8 type I PTA, 5 type II) who underwent primary repair from September 1992 to December 2006. Median age and body weight at surgery were 21 days and 2.9 kg, respectively. All but 1 patient underwent RVOT reconstruction by direct anastomosis with a monocusp patch. There were 2 operative deaths (12%). No patient had a pulmonary hypertensive crisis. The median duration of ventilation was 5 days. Another patient died from cardiogenic shock resulting from late cardiac tamponade 2 months after surgery. Four patients (40%) required balloon angioplasty and 5 (50%) required re-operation for branch pulmonary artery and/or conduit obstruction during the median follow-up period of 70 months (44-174 months). Freedom from all re-interventions and re-operation at 5 years was 50% (95% confidence limits, 19-81%) and 60% (95% confidence limits, 30-91%), respectively. Conclusions: Reasonable early and long-term results can be achieved with direct anastomosis. Further reduction of the re-intervention rate could be attained by refining the surgical techniques and catheter intervention strategies.