Systemic-Pulmonary shunts inneonates and infants using microporous expanded polytetrafluoroethylene: immediate and late results.

Thirty infants with various types of cyanotic congenitl heart disease underwent systemic-pulmonary artery shunts with a microporous polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) graft between May, 1976, and July, 1979. Sixteen of them were less than 1 month old, and the average age of the neonates was 5.3 days. There were no operative deaths and 5 hospital deaths, 2 related directly to the shunt. Five patients required early revision of the shunt. Relief from cyanosis was achieved in each patient. Twenty-five patients have been followed up to three and one-half years. There have been 2 late deaths and one late occlusion of the shunt. One patient outgrew the shunt and required secondary shunting procedures. Three of 30 patients have evidenced mild congestive heart failure, which has responded to digitalis. Because of the reliability and excellent late patency of the PTFE prosthesis, we consider it to be superior to a central or Potts shunt for relief from cyanosis in the neonate and infant, and as reliable as a Blalock-Taussig shunt.