Bidirectional cavopulmonary anastomosis in congenital heart disease. Functional and clinical outcome.

The bidirectional cavopulmonary anastomosis is a surgical procedure suitable for patients with cyanotic congenital heart disease and univentricular physiology. This operation is able to increase the effective pulmonary blood flow without any additional load on the cardiac work and without any further distortion on the pulmonary artery branches. The cavopulmonary anastomosis can represent the first stage for patients destined for Fontan repair or a definitive palliative operation in high risk Fontan candidates. In order to test the hypothesis of a definitive palliation by cavopulmonary anastomosis in this kind of patients, we evaluated the hemodynamic data before and after this surgical approach and compared these data with their clinical and functional outcome. We evaluated 74 patients submitted to bidirectional cavopulmonary anastomosis by either hemodynamic or functional evaluation. End-diastolic and end-systolic ventricular volumes were significantly reduced by bidirectional cavopulmonary anastomosis (p less than 0.0005). Despite these data and a normal ambulatory ECG, spirometry and echocardiographic analysis, the stress test showed discouraging results. In fact, mean work time and peak heart rate were significantly different from normal values showing an impaired functional capacity of these children. In conclusion we think that bidirectional cavopulmonary anastomosis can not be considered an adequate definitive palliation but it represents a very good stage to preserve the pulmonary arteries and to prepare the systemic ventricle towards the Fontan repair.