Patients with univentricular heart submitted to Glenn surgery

Abstract

Objective: To describe the clinical, surgical and post-surgical characteristics of univentricular patients undergoing Glenn’s surgery in a cardiovascular reference center. Method: Descriptive, retrospective study from January 2012 to December 2016, in patients under 18 who consulted a fourth level clinic with cardiopathies of univentricular physiology defined by institutional echocardiography, presented at the surgical medical board, operated or not as the first stage of palliation, followed in the single ventricle program of the institution, later performed a cardiac catheterization to be presented at the medical board that defined the performance of Glenn’s surgery. From the clinical history, data of diagnostic echocardiograms, cardiac catheteri-zations, surgical descriptions, and evolutions were collected. Results: A total of 88 univentricular patients were analyzed, of which 63% were men and 36% women. The anatomy of the right univentricular functional ventricle was present in 38.6% and 61.4% of left functional morphology. Among the characteristics associated with mortality, it was verified that 1.1% had moderate atrioventricular valve insufficiency and 3.4% had severe atrioventricular valve insufficiency in the patients who participa-ted in the study. 38.6% had pulmonary arterial hypertension detected by cardiac catheterization and 46% had increased pulmonary vascular resistance. The use of vasopressor therapy before Glenn’s surgery was present in 9 patients and of them, the whole had milrinone. The postoperative mortality was 18%. Conclusions: This study shows that diagnosis and early intervention reduce morbidity and mortality in patients with a diagnosis of univentricular heart since without intervention of the second stage of palliation would be fatal for the vast majority of patients. It also demonstrates the importance of a comprehensive program for the care of complex cardiovascular pathologies.