Surgery of the Heart and Great Vessels in the Newborn Period

Abstract

The authors review a series of 450 operations performed during the first year of life on infants with congenital defects of the heart and great vessels. Both closed and open-heart technics were used in various operations designed to correct the anomalies completely or to diminish their deleterious hemodynamic effects. The survival of 72 per cent of these infants demonstrates the advisability of surgical therapy when medical management is not effective in relieving hypoxemia and heart failure.