The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Vol 76, 336-344, Copyright © 1978 by The American Association for Thoracic Surgery and The Western Thoracic Surgical Association
Surgical management of double-outlet right ventricle associated with atrioventricular discordance
IF Tabry, DC McGoon, GK Danielson, RB Wallace, Z Davis and JD Maloney
Twenty corrective operations for this unusual syndrome have been performed
since 1965. All but two patients also had pulmonary stenosis; one of the
exceptions had had pulmonary arterial banding. Two patients had situs
inversus of the atria and viscera. In only three of the 20 patients (15
percent) was the apex of the heart positioned normally. Six patients had an
entirely intracardiac repair; two early and two late deaths occurred in
this group. The other technique, performed in 14 patients, involved
insertion of an extracadiac conduit between a ventriculotomy in the
morphologically left ventricle and the distal end of the proximally
oversewn pulmonary artery; one operative and two late deaths occurred in
this group. Heart block occurred in six patients, including two among the
eight who had technically satisfactory intraoperative mapping of the His
bundle. The intraventricular course of the bundle was not consistently
positioned, being anterior to the septal defect in four and posterior in
four. No hospital deaths have occurred in the last 13 operations; all
except one of the survivors are in New York Heart Association Class I or
II. Thus correction currently provides a good early results but leaves the
ventricles in an inverted relationship both functionally and anatomically.