Potts Shunt for Children With Severe Pulmonary Hypertension

Abstract

Children with severe pulmonary hypertension have limited therapeutic options. To avert the consequences of right heart failure, the Potts shunt has been proposed as a means to off-load the right ventricle, improving overall cardiac output at the expense of lower saturation and oxygen delivery to lower extremities. In the following, the details of the procedure are described along with a modification (with interposition graft) that could perhaps facilitate the performance of the procedure for patients as an alternative palliative intervention to lung transplantation.