Treatments and Conditions

When people think of heart surgery, they often think of a repair: replacing a defective valve or patching a hole in the heart. Reconstruction, on the other hand, is reconfiguring how the heart works on many levels. This can include repairing parts of the heart, replacing others, and creating new pathways for blood flow, all at once. The end goal for us when performing a complex biventricular reconstruction is a better-functioning heart that’s closer to normal heart structure, one that improves blood flow and creates better blood oxygen levels, which in turn leads to more energy and a better quality of life.

Biventricular reconstruction can sometimes delay or prevent the need for a heart transplant. It may also mean fewer complications with other organs, such as the liver and kidneys, and possibly fewer heart surgeries in the future.

At Stanford Children’s Health, we offer many forms of complex biventricular reconstruction for a wide range of heart conditions:

• Anatomic repair (double switch surgery)
  Performed only for:
  • Congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (CCTGA).

• Complex reconfiguring of the heart through septation or intracardiac baffles
  Any combination of the following conditions and others:

  • Complex outlets: Double outlet right ventricle (DORV) or other conotruncal defects, often with remote ventricular septal defect (VSD).
  • Complex inlets: Straddling tricuspid or mitral valve, supero-inferior ventricles (crisscross heart).
  • Heterotaxy syndrome.
  • Conversion from single ventricle or Fontan.

• Pulmonary root translocation
  Performed for these conditions and others:

  • Dextro-transposition of the great arteries (d-TGA) with pulmonary stenosis.
  • DORV with pulmonary stenosis.
  • CCTGA with pulmonary stenosis.

• Recruitment of borderline ventricles
  Performed for these conditions and others:

  • Borderline hypoplastic right/left heart syndrome.
  • Unbalanced AV canal defect or unbalanced AV septal defect.
  • Ventricular imbalance.