[Functional univentricular heart: immediate and long term results, in the different stages of sequential correction].

Introduction: The functionally univentricular heart represents an heterogeneous group of anomalies that have in common the feature that only one of the chambers within the ventricular mass is capable of supporting independently either the pulmonary or systemic circulation.

Objective: Evaluation from the neonatal period of the immediate and long term surgical results of the sequential total cavo-pulmonary connection in the various anatomical forms of the functional univentricular hearts.

Methods: From May 1998 to May 2009, 84 patients have been followed since the neonatal period and in a prospective retro-prospective way (bidirectional), in which 181 sequential surgical procedures were performed in three stages: Neonatal, Bidirectional Glenn and Total cava pulmonary connection.

[Neonatal cardiac surgery: assessment and comparison of surgical results using the RACHS-1 risk adjustment method].

Introduction: The RACHS-1 method (Risk Adjustment for Congenital Heart Surgery) is widely used to predict mortality and risk adjustment in pediatric cardiovascular surgery and constitutes a valid tool to compare results among different health centers.

Objective: To analyze if the mortality observed in the neonatal group is related to age and/or the risk stratification according to RACHS-1.

Methods: From March 2001 to May 2008 we operated on 751 consecutive patients: 160 neonates (0-30 days), 309 infants (31 days-1 year) and 282 olders (1-18 years).

Matrix-array 3-dimensional echocardiographic assessment of volumes, mass, and ejection fraction in young pediatric patients with a functional single ventricle: a comparison study with cardiac magnetic resonance.

Background: Quantitative assessment of ventricular volumes and mass in pediatric patients with single-ventricle physiology would aid clinical management, but it is difficult to obtain with 2-dimensional echocardiography. The purpose of the present study was to compare matrix-array 3-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) measurements of single-ventricle volumes, mass, and ejection fraction with those measured by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) in young patients.

Methods And Results: Twenty-nine patients (median age, 7 months) with a functional single ventricle undergoing CMR under general anesthesia were prospectively enrolled.

Doppler velocity and flow through the aortic isthmus in normal term neonates.

Our hypothesis was that the relationship between the internal aortic diameter and the Doppler flow velocity across the aortic isthmus could be modeled by applying the principle of conservation of mass flow. The aortic diameter decreased at the isthmus by a mean of 18% (t = 11.02, p < 0.