Surgical outcomes for anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery: impact of late presentation

Structured Abstract Objectives Although surgical outcomes for anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA) are excellent in the modern era with the coronary reimplantantion technique, mortality remains high in Chinese population. This study was undertaken to review the surgical management in our center and assess the midterm outcomes. Methods This was a retrospective review of 105 patients who underwent surgical repair for ALCAPA from January 2008 to January 2018. Results The diagnosis of ALCAPA was not made before referred to our hospital in 31 patients (30%). Median age at repair was 7.6 months (interquartile range, 4.3-25.4 months). Mean preoperative left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was 47.3 ± 16.9%. Concomitant mitral intervention was performed in 52 patients (50%). Mechanical circulatory support was used in 15 patients (14%). Early mortality was 14%. Classification and regression tree analysis identified 3 risk groups for early mortality, among which patients with preoperative LVEF ≤41.6% and age at repair >127 days were the most likely to suffer from mortality. Using nonlinear mixed-effect model to assess the time course for postoperative LVEF, patients of this group also needed significantly longer time for recovery of left ventricular function after surgery (P Conclusions Late referral of patients with ALCAPA is not uncommon in our center. Older age at repair in patients with preoperative left ventricular dysfunction is the main reason for higher early mortality, and is also associated with longer time to normalization of left ventricular function after surgery.