Successful Hybrid Rescue of Occluded Pulmonary Artery in Pulmonary Atresia

Abstract

Hybrid cardiac procedures are a result of synergistic cooperation between the cardiologist and surgeon. They are a combination of surgical repair and intraoperative catheter-based interventions, and may provide an effective option for the repair of complex congenital heart lesions. We present a 30-year-old man with pulmonary atresia and a ventricular septal defect. He previously had a Waterston shunt placed at 10 days of age and a right pulmonary artery shunt at 4 years of age. He had ventricular septal defect closure with a 23-mm homograft conduit connecting the right ventricular outflow tract to the main pulmonary artery confluence at 9 years of age. The patient presented to us 21 years later with pulmonary conduit obstruction, right pulmonary artery stenosis, and an occluded left pulmonary artery (LPA; Figures 1, 2A, and 2B). The catheterization demonstrated right ventricular pressure (70% of systemic arterial pressure) at 89/14 mm Hg. There was a 28-mm Hg gradient to the right pulmonary artery, and the LPA was occluded. A 7-mm distal LPA was demonstrated by left pulmonary vein wedge angiogram. Given the long occlusion between the conduit and the lower LPA, we were concerned that the LPA would not be accessible for direct patch augmentation, and hence decided to perform a hybrid procedure; …