Long-Distance Procured Homograft-valved Conduit Replacement for Congenital Heart Disease: Initial Experience with 10 Cases

Abstract

We review our experience from January 1987 to September 1992 with the surgical treatment of complex congenital malformations requiring an extracardiac homograft-valved conduit. There were 10 patients in the series; 7 pulmonary and 3 aortic homografts were implanted. Ages ranged from 1 month to 26 years (mean 7.9). There were 4 cases of hospital mortality, none related to the homograft itself. The major postoperative complication was low cardiac output syndrome. The 6 survivors have been followed between 3 months and 5 years and no dysfunction of the valved homograft, thromboembolism, or hemolysis have been recorded. All the survivors are symptom-free with a good quality of life. The use of homografts is advised in selected cases of right and left ventricular tract reconstruction for congenital heart disease; homografts are easy to handle and offer several technical advantages over prosthetic tissues.