Long-term Outcome After Repair of Transposition of the Great Arteries With Aortic Arch Obstruction

This study compares the long-term outcomes of patients after repair of transposition of the great arteries (TGA) with and without aortic arch obstruction (AAO).

This is a single-institution, retrospective study between October 2004 and February 2023. Patients who underwent arterial switch operation and aortic arch repair (ASO-AAR group) with patch augmentation were compared with those without AAO (ASO group). The primary end point was survival; freedom from reintervention was a secondary end point.

We identified 176 patients, 31 in the ASO-AAR group and 145 in the ASO group. The median follow-up period was 10.3 years. There were no differences between the ASO-AAR group and the ASO group in early deaths (3.2% vs 0.7%) and late deaths (3.2% vs 2.8%), or 15-year survival rates (92.6% vs 96.2%). Surgical and catheter-based reinterventions were higher in the ASO-AAR group, involving the pulmonary arteries (41.9% vs 4.8%, P < .001), aortic arch (16.1% vs 0.7%, P < .001), and residual ventricular septal defects (11.4% vs 0%, P = .05). The ASO-AAR group showed a higher prevalence of double-outlet right ventricle TGA-type (61.3% vs 4.1%, P < .001) and a lower aortopulmonary index (0.67 vs 1.01, P < .001).

Patients undergoing surgical repair of TGA and AAO achieved excellent survival rates, comparable to patients with simple transposition. A higher rate of surgical and catheter-based reinterventions was observed in patients with arch obstruction and/or a low aortopulmonary index. AAR with patch augmentation proved to be an effective surgical technique with a low incidence of aortic reinterventions.