[Current status of Senning's physiologic correction of transposition of the great vessels. Personal experience].

From January 1978 to December 1985, 70 children affected by TGA have been operated with the Senning operation. Among the 70 cases, 64 were simple TGA and 6 were TGA + VSD. The mean age at operation was 6 months (range 2 day - 3 years). Of 64 cases with simple TGA, two (respectively of 2 days and 40 days) died with an operative mortality rate of 3.1% of 6 cases with TGA and VSD, one died with a mortality rate of 16.6%. The total mortality was 4.2%. Since 1981 in a continuative series of 47 patients there were no deaths. Our current policy is now the following: after the diagnosis of simple TGA by ECHO, if the Rashkind septostomy is successful, we perform Senning operation over 3 months; if the Rashkind is unsuccessful, we give prostaglandin (PGE1) for a long period (25-30 days) and in case we do a Blalock-Hanlon septectomy. In conclusion we think that in our hands, the policy followed in the treatment of simple TGA is justified by the results achieved but this policy does not prevent us from using different techniques if the results are better.