Outcomes of duct stenting and modified Blalock-Taussig shunt in cyanotic congenital heart disease with duct-dependent pulmonary circulation.

BACKGROUND Transcatheter ductus arteriosus stenting (DS) is emerging as an alternative method to modified Blalock-Taussig shunt (MBTS) in providing pulmonary blood flow in cyanotic congenital heart disease (CCHD) with duct-dependent pulmonary circulation. OBJECTIVE To evaluate post-procedural outcomes and survival between patients undergoing DS and MBTS. METHODS All infants ≤ 60 days of age having CCHD with diminished pulmonary blood flow who underwent palliative procedure either with MBTS or DS at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital during January 1st, 2013 and December 31th, 2017 were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS 98 patients were included; 34 patients underwent a transcatheter DS and 64 patients underwent MBTS. There was no significant difference in post-procedural outcomes and overall mortality rate between two groups (17.6% in MBTS group and 6.1% in DS group, p = 0.09). Single ventricle morphology was the major risk factor associated with increased mortality compared with biventricular morphology (aHR 3.9, 95% CI 1.49-10.2, p = 0.01). There was similar number of early and pre-repair additional interventions focusing on MBTS/DS patency between two groups. The MBTS group had a greater number of early interventions on PA branch stenosis related to baseline diagnosis. Risk factors associated with additional intervention were pre-existing pulmonary branch stenosis (aHR 2.54, 95% CI 1.3-4.97, p = 0.006) and body weight less than 2.5 kg (aHR 3.33, 95% CI 1.57-7.08, p = 0.003). Having pulmonic valve perforation or balloon pulmonary valvuloplasty to promote antegrade pulmonary blood flow could result in a lower number of additional interventions required before definitive repair. CONCLUSION Duct stenting is a feasible and safe alternative to MBTS in cyanotic infants with duct-dependent pulmonary circulation. However, mortality rate was significantly higher in patients with single ventricle that required careful follow-up after procedure.