Postoperative echocardiographic evaluation of modified Blalock-Taussig shunts / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

0bjective To summarize the experience of postoperative and mid-term echocardiographic evaluation of modified Blalock-Tasussig(BT)shunts. Methods During 2003-2006,thirty five consecutive patients received modified BT shunts and survived postoperative 6 months were enrolled in this study.Transthoracic echocardiography was utilized to evaluate the patency of shunts and the change of pulmonaryarteries(PA)and left ventricle(LV). Results Three patients received the emergence surgery for the intervention for the BT shunts. The follow-up was (21.2±11.3) months. During the follow up,the obstruction of shunts occurred in 7 cases. After the placement of shunts,the mean size of PA increased by 31.2%,meanwhile,the size of LV increased by 25.6%. Nineteen patients received the followed definitive repair or palliative operations. Compared with the patients still waiting for the growth of PA,the patients who receiving the second staged procedure achieved the more appropriate PA growth. Furthermore,for the above patients,there was no significant difference between the angiographic and echocardiographic evaluation for the PA size. Conclusions Echocardiography could accurately diagnose the patency of shunts and record the growth of PA and LV following BT shunts. Echocardiography is a highly reliable noninvasive approach for the perioperative evaluation and mid-term follow-up for the modified BT shunts.