Classic shunting operations for congenital cyanotic heart defects.

A total of 297 consecutive classic systemic artery-pulmonary artery shunts were performed in 281 patients over the past 9 years. This experience includes 200 Blalock-Taussig shunts (67.3%), 84 Waterston shunts (28.2%), and 13 Potts shunts (4.3%). The overall early mortality after the Blalock-Taussig shunt (5.5%) was significantly lower (p less than 0.02) than for the Waterston shunt (13%). The early mortality after either the Blalock-Taussig or Waterston shunt was not statistically related to the age of the patient at operation. Both the Blalock-Taussig and Waterston shunts demonstrated a higher mortality (p less than 0.02) among patients in Group II (complex defects) than in patients in Group I (tetralogy of Fallot and pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect [VSD]). However, the Blalock-Taussig shunt had a significantly lower (p less than 0.04) probability of early postoperative death than the Waterston shunt among patients with complex lesions. The Blalock-Taussig shunt also revealed a lower incidence of important late postoperative complications and did not affect adversely the hemodynamic result after intracardiac correction, as evidenced by late postoperative cardiac catheterization. This study also confirms the feasibility of the Blalock-Taussig shunt during the neonatal period without significantly increased age-related risk of postoperative death (p = 0.13) and with good early and late long-term patency rates.