Blalock Taussig type shunt palliation for cyanotic infants and children.

In a period of ten years from January 1, 1979 to December 31, 1988, 54 cyanotic patients weighing less than 10 kg underwent shunt operations of Blalock Taussig type. The indications were hypercyanotic spells, failure to thrive and pulmonary arteries being too small for safe total collection. The commonest diagnosis was tetralogy of Fallot (63%). Thirty-three (64%) patients were older than 1 year but still weighed less than ten kg. Mortality was 16.67% (70% C.L. 8.94-26.60). During follow-up, there were 4(7%) late deaths. During the same period, 134 patients less than 5 years age came to autopsy without having any cardiological or surgical intervention. Ninety-seven (72.4%) of these deaths were due to cardiac causes. In order to save their lives, early identification is necessary which highlights the importance of parent and primary physician education.

Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) in unstable angina.

We performed percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty in 33 highly selected patients of unstable angina, a majority of whom were initially stabilized by medical therapy. All these patients had single vessel disease with type A lesion. The initial success rate was 91% with recurrence of 17% at the end of 1 year.