Experience in the use of the Mustard operation in the surgical treatment of transposition of the great vessels

In the 1980-1988 period, Mustard's operation was used to treat transposition of great vessels at the Department of Younger Children, A. N. Bakulev Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery. Seventy nine patients were operated on: 56 with simple transposition, 9 (16%) patients died; 23 with complex transpositions of great vessels (18 with concurrent ventricular septum defect, 5 with Taussig-Bing's disease), 5 (22%) patients died. Rhythm disturbances and obstruction of the venae cavae were most common postoperative complications. Six patients underwent Mustard's operation with closure of ventricular septal defect. In 18 patients this operation was performed as a palliative procedure due to high pulmonary hypertension. Lung biopsy showed the majority of patients with concurrent transposition and interventricular septal defect to have grade III-IV changes (by Hit-Edwards' classification) in the pulmonary vessels. Long-term hemodynamic studies showed good effect of palliative Mustard's operation.