Early and mid-term follow-up of patients receiving arterial switch operation: a single-center experience

The arterial switch operation (ASO) has become the preferred method for surgical correction of transposition of the great arteries (TGA) and Taussig-Bing anomaly. This study was aimed to analysis the early and mid-term results of patients receiving ASO for TGA and Taussig-Bing anomaly in our institute.

A single-institution retrospective study was conducted to assess cardiovascular outcomes after ASO between January 2007 and December 2013. A total of 119 consecutive patients were included in this study. The median age at operation was 30 days (range, 1 day-8 years), the median weight was 3.8 kg (range, 2.0-23.0 kg). The ventricular septum was intact in 59 (49.6%) patients, 43 (36.1%) had ventricular septal defect, and 17 (14.3%) had a Taussig-Bing anomaly. We followed up patients with echocardiography. Special attention had been paid to the neo-aortic regurgitation and pulmonary stenosis.

In hospital deaths occurred in 10 (8.4%) patients. The most cause of death was low cardiac output due to deconditioning of the left ventricle and myocardial infarction. Echocardiographic data after ASO were collected in 93 (85.3%) patients at a mean duration of 60.7±20.2 months. Among them, 4 (4.3%) patients had moderate to severe neo-aortic regurgitation, 1 (1.1%) patient had moderate tricuspid regurgitation, 4 (4.3%) patients had moderate pulmonary regurgitation; 1 (1.1%) patients had moderate pulmonary stenosis and no patients had severe stenosis. Only two patients required a surgical reintervention.

The early mortality rate has decreased and the most cause of death was low cardiac output. The outcomes of the ASO using our reconstruction and reimplantation techniques were excellent and the reoperation rate was very low in the early and mid-term follow-up.