[Systemic-pulmonary artery shunt using Golaski graft: trial for measurement of the shunt flow]

For the systemic-pulmonary artery shunt operation, the modified Blalock-Taussig shunt was the first choice for procedure in our institution. Since 1990, Golaski knitted Dacron graft (4 or 5 mm in diameter) was used for the prosthesis. Ex-vivo flow calibration of the electromagnetic flow meter (Nihon Koden, MFV-3100) to Golaski graft showed good correlation between the real flow and value measured by the electromagnetic flow meter. Shunt flow was measured in the consecutive clinical fifteen cases. The shunt flow per body surface area of the patient who required additional shunt operation was 721 ml/min/m2 and one patient in whom the congestive heart failure developed after the shunt operation, had the shunt flow of 3,022 ml/min/m2. The adequate shunt flow in these cases was ranged from 745 to 2,820 ml/min/m2 (mean +/- 1 SD, 1,490 +/- 587.8). Therefore we performed the systemic-pulmonary artery shunt operation using Golaski graft to get the shunt flow of 1,000 ml/min/m2 (approximately a third of cardiac index) for the guide of good results.