Surgical management of congenital cardiovascular anomalies with the use of profound hypothermia and circulatory arrest. Analysis of 180 consecutive cases.

An initial series of 180 patients subjected to definitive repair of cardiac malformations during infancy is presented. The operations were performed with profound hypothermia and circulatory stasis. Statistics relating to the entire series of patients are presented and discussed, after which the results among eleven individual groups of patients categorized by type of cardiovascular lesion are analyzed. There was 113 survivors, representing an over-all mortality rate of 37 per cent. The mortality rate was highest among patients severely ill preoperatively and among those with complex malformations. Deaths were also more frequent among infants under 6 months of age and less than 5 kilograms in weight. Analysis shows a steady increase in percentage of patient survival over the years reported from December, 1967, to April, 1975.