Results of pulmonary arterial banding in infancy. Survey of 5 years' experience in the New England Regional Infant Cardiac Program.

The results of pulmonary arterial banding in 238 infants, 12 percent of the infants admitted to the New England Regional Infant Cardiac Program, is reviewed. Overall survival to age 1 year was 63 percent. Survival was least likely (37 percent) in those who required banding within the 1st month of life. Additional surgery decreased the survival rate in those operated on after 1 month of age. Infants with anomalies for which no corrective surgical procedure is available (23 of 238) have only a 30 percent chance of survival. Those with lesions correctable within the 1st year (133 of 238) have a 74 percent survival rate; 52 percent (82 of 238) of those for whom a curative operation is available after the 1st year survive. These pulmonary arterial banding data coupled with results of primary correction should provide the data base required for an intelligent decision in respect to appropriate surgical treatment of infants with critical heart disease.