Surgical treatment of truncus arteriosus in the 1st year of life

: 80% of patients with Truncus arteriosus died in the first year of life by cardiac insufficiency from left to right shunt, high level of pulmonary vascular disease, truncal valve insufficiency. The palliative procedure, banding of the pulmonary arteries, is technically difficult, with high hospital mortality (50%) and increases the risk of the second stage repair (70%). Eight infants (1 to 9 months) have been corrected with 3 operative deaths and two late deaths. Three patients are doing well 12, 12 and 36 months post-operatively. Two technical problems are of concern: 1: The size of the valved extracardiac conduit comparing with the size of the infants thorax and the long term follow-up of such conduit. 2: The management of the truncal valve insufficiency: no plasty or replacement have be done, but in three cases of truncal insufficiency one pericardial patch has been used to double the VSD's dacron patch to avoid hemolysis. The one-stage repair of truncus arteriosus in infancy is one acceptable approach.