[Short and midterm results of surgical treatment of interrupted aortic arch]

Objective: To analyze the early and midterm results of surgical treatment of interrupted aortic arch (IAA) with double-ventricular procedure. Methods: The data of the 68 cases with the main diagnosis of IAA with biventricular structure from June 2009 to June 2017 at Department of Cardiac Surgery, Guangdong General Hospital was collected, including 46 cases of type A, 22 cases of type B. There was no type C case. Except for 5 cases without patent ductus arteriosus or other intracardiac malformations, the remaining 63 cases were combined with intracardiac deformity. The age of operation was 8 days to 18 years, including 28 cases(41.2%) of newborns, 32 cases(47.1%) within 1 year old, 6 cases(8.8%) from 1 to 15 years old, and 2 cases(2.9%) above 15 years old. Of the 5 patients with no intracardiac malformations, 4 patients were treated with a left-posterior thoracic lateral incision for primary surgical correction with end-to-side anastomosis, and 1 adult patient was treated with a median sternotomy incision to complete the anastomosis with the assist of extracorporeal circulation. Of the 63 patients with intracardiac malformation, 2 underwent reconstruction of the aortic arch via posterolateral left thoracic incision merely; 2 patients underwent staged surgery to correction the IAA and intracardiac malformation; the remaining 59 patients underwent the one-stage procedure of IAA and intracardiac malformation correction with deep hypothermic circulatory arrest and 43 cases of selective cerebral perfusion. A total of 55 cases of end-to-end or end-to-side anastomosis were performed in all aortic arch reconstruction. There were 6 cases of connection the arch to descending aorta with autogenous pulmonary artery conduit, and 1 case with homemade bovine pericardial conduit. And there were 5 cases of anastomosis enlargement with autogenous pulmonary artery patch, and 1 case with left subclavian artery flap patch. There were 1 case performed with D. K.S. operation for the severe hypogenetic aortic valve and ascending aorta, and 1 case with left ventricular double outlet channel operation for the severe subvalvular aortic stenosis. Results: Follow-up to 9 years, 4 deaths (5.9%) related to circulatory system diseases: 3 cases died within 30 days after surgery (1 case was neonatal, 2 cases were 1 to 12 months old); one died 8 months after surgery for low cardiac output syndrome. In the early postoperative period, 11 cases (16.2%) of residual aortic arch obstruction (pressure gradient >30 mmHg) were observed, of which 3 cases were moderate (4.4%); follow-up to 5 years after operation was residual obstruction in 3 cases and moderate in 2 cases. There were 3 cases with aortic valve and subvalvular obstruction (differential pressure >30 mmHg), 3 cases were followed up to 5 years after aortic valve and subvalvular obstruction, and 2 cases were moderate or above. To date, 5 patients have undergone 6 reoperations of the cardiovascular system: 3 cases because of pulmonary artery stenosis, 2 cases because of severe aortic arch stenosis, and 1 case because of aortic subvalvular obstruction. Conclusions: One-stage surgical repair of IAA is safe and clinically effective in the neonatal and infant. But some patients still requires reoperation for re-obstruction from subvalvular or aorta arch. For some patients, the choice of aortic arch reconstruction depends on the specific situation.