[Surgical treatment of double outlet left ventricle]

Double outlet left ventricle (DOLV) is an uncommon congenital cardiac defect which was first reported by Sakakibara and associates. We studied anatomical aspects relevant to surgical repair in our 4 cases and additional 28 cases which had been reported on the literatures. The locations of ventricular septal defect (VSD) were subaortic in 20 cases, subpulmonary in 7, doubly-committed in 2 and unknown in 2. The positions of the aorta relative to the pulmonary artery were right or left anterior oblique in 11 cases, right or left side-by-side in 9, right or left posterior oblique in 10 and unknown in 3. The definitive surgery included Rastelli type operation in 18 cases, right ventricular outflow tract repair with closure of VSD in 6, intraventricular conduit repair in 4 and Fontan type operation in 4. In regard to the selection of the procedure, the size of right ventricle, the presence of pulmonary stenosis, the location of VSD and the relationship of the great arteries are very important. Although most of the patients underwent the Rastelli type operation, the right ventricular outflow tract reconstruction or intraventricular conduit repair could be adopted particularly in patients with posterior oblique position of the aorta relative to the pulmonary artery or subpulmonary VSD.