Right ventricular outflow repair: the aortic autograft technique procures the best late results in the transposition...

After treatment of transposition of the great arteries (TGA), ventricular septal defect (VSD), pulmonary stenosis, or atresia by various surgical procedures, two main problems led to reoperation: RV-PA conduit or connection stenosis and subaortic stenosis. We report here our mid- and long-term experience of a technique described in 1997 using a segment of aortic autograft as a RV-PA conduit.

Between 1993 and 2005, 25 patients with TGA, VSD, PS, or atresia were corrected with a technique using an intra-ventricular rerouting with conal septum resection (as in reconstruction-endo-ventriculaire (REV)) and interposition of tubular segment of autograft aorta between RV and PA without Lecompte maneuver (as in Rastelli), using in some cases an additional monocusp patch. The patient's age at correction ranged from 2.5 months to 11 years (mean 2.2 years); seven patients were under 1 year and 13 had a previous shunt procedure. Patients were regularly followed by two-dimensional (2D) annual echocardiogram, occasionally by catheterization and more recently by MNR.

There was one postoperative death essentially due to RV failure. There was one late death after 15 years. There were 23 long-term survivors with a mean follow-up of 12.8 years. All patients were in class I category and all of them were in sinus rhythm. Three of them needed a reoperation at 4, 5, and 6 years for subaortic stenosis and one of them with abnormal chordae in the left ventricle (LV) outflow, Only one patient needed a reoperation for RV-PA stenosis, 13 years after correction done at age 2.5 months, the autograft tissue not being implied and found normal at histology. Mean RV pressure by echo at last follow-up was 41 mm Hg. Ten patients exhibit a mild-to-moderate pulmonary regurgitation. Freedom from reoperation for RV-PA obstruction is 90% at 10 and 15 years.

Compared with all other techniques (Rastelli, REV, and Nikaidoh) our autograft technique provides the best-reported outcome for RV-PA outflow freedom from reoperation, the aortic segment employed being a living tissue susceptible to growth. However, it remains most often a long-term valveless procedure and does not avoid occasional unexpected LV-AO stenosis.