Neonatal anatomic repair of transposition of the great arteries and ventricular septal defect

From January 1985 to March 1992, 64 consecutive neonates with transposition of the great arteries (TGA) and ventricular septal defect (VSD) underwent an arterial switch operation and VSD closure. The mean age at operation was 18.5 ± 12 days and the mean weight was 3.3 kg. Seventeen patients had an associated aortic coarctation, of whom 15 underwent single-stage repair through median sternotomy. Coronary artery distribution was: type A: 45 patients; type B: 2; type D: 11 and type E: 6 patients. The location of the VSD was perimenbranous in 42 patients, trabecular in 13, infundibular in 5, and 4 presented with the Taussig Bing heart anomaly. The hospital mortality was 9.3% (n = 6). There were four late deaths (one TGA-VSD and three TGA-VSD and coarctation). Nine patients required reoperation. The mean follow-up of all survivors was 36 ± 19 months. They were in NYHA class I without medication. Six patients developed mild-to-moderate aortic insufficiency. The actuarial survival and freedom from reoperation at 5 years were 81.06% and 84.6%, respectively. We conclude that neonatal anatomic repair of TGA and VSD offers good medium-term results and avoids iterative operations.