Senning's procedure for transposition of the great arteries

The outlook for children with transposition of the great arteries (TGA) improved dramatically with the advent of the atrial repair. This procedure, first successfully performed by Ake Senning, followed years of unsuccessful attempts at correction by a number of surgeons using a variety of techniques. Senning's procedure expanded on the concept experimentally proposed by Albert of redirecting venous return at the atrial level to achieve physiological correction. The Senning procedure was largely abandoned when Mustard's technique was introduced in 1964, but has enjoyed a resurgence as a number of its potential advantages became more fully appreciated. Today, patients with TGA are increasingly undergoing repair by the arterial switch technique. Not all patients, however, are suitable candidates for this approach, and its success will be measured against the ingenious procedure described by Senning more than a quarter of a century ago.