Transposition of the Great Arteries

The first approach to physiologic correction of transposition of the great arteries, based on transposing venous inflow, was conceived by Albert,3 using animal experiments, and reported in 1954. Senning64 reported in 1959 a successful intraatrial operation in humans utilizing the walls and septum of the atria. Shumacker68 described in 1961 an operation using a bipedicled atrial flap. Mustard’s report47 in 1964 of an intraatrial transposition operation in a human using pericardium led to its almost universal use during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The 1970s saw a widespread return to the Senning operation in hopes of decreasing or eliminating some of the complications seen with the Mustard operation.10,20,50,53