Ventricular volume of single ventricle with or without palliation and after corrective surgery--concept of septation procedure.

Ventricular volume measurements of single ventricle were carried out in 20 patients with or without palliation and in 2 after total correction. In the former 20 patients, 6 had a single left ventricle and 14 a single right ventricle, anatomically. Two having total correction were associated with undivided ventricle. In the 20 patients with or without palliation, ventricular end-diastolic volume ranged from 64 to 206 (115 +/- 42) percent of the sum of the normal left and right ventricular volumes. Ejection fraction of single ventricle ranged from 0.40 to 0.64 (0.55 +/- 0.06). There was no significant difference in ventricular volume and ejection fraction between patients with a single left and right ventricle. There was high correlation of ventricular volume with pulmonary to systemic blood flow ratio (r = 0.66, p less than 0.005). This indicates that systemic-to-pulmonary shunt should increase ventricular volume of single ventricle. In two patients after total correction, total ventricular volume was 136 and 166% of the sum of the normal left and right ventricular volumes. Total ejection fraction was 0.55 and 0.33 in the first and second patient, respectively. The prosthetic ventricular septum bulged toward the right ventricle during systole and this shift made the left ventricular volume increase and ejection fraction decrease. Right-to-left ventricular volume ratio at end-diastole was 0.74 and 0.67 in the first and second patient, respectively. These results suggest that 1) larger ventricular volume than the sum of the normal left and right ventricular volumes would be required for septation of single ventricle.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)