Surgical correction for one pulmonary artery arising from ascending aorta--report of five cases.

Over a 10-year period we encountered 5 infants with a pulmonary artery branch arising from ascending aorta. Surgical re-implantation of this vessel was carried out at ages 2.5, 5, 8, 9, and 19.5 months. Pre-operative cardiac catheterization demonstrated severely raised pulmonary artery pressures in all, equal to systemic in 3, and suprasystemic in 2. Four patients had origin of the right pulmonary artery from ascending aorta with a left aortic arch, and the remaining patient had an anomalous left pulmonary artery associated with a right-sided aortic arch. All patients had substantial reduction in pulmonary artery pressures immediately following surgery. One patient died 18 days post-operatively from extensive lung disease. In all 4 of the survivors, post-operative cardiac catheterization (11 to 85 months after surgery) has shown a drop in pulmonary artery pressures. One patient has been left with mildly elevated systolic values but normal diastolic levels. In 2 of the children, mild stenosis has been found at the site of reimplantation of the pulmonary artery. This anomaly should always be considered as a cause in the setting of a large left to right shunt with tricuspid incompetence and severe right ventricular hypertrophy. Prompt surgical repair, after confirmation of the diagnosis, should prevent death from heart failure or the development of irreversible pulmonary vascular disease.