Assessment Of Operability By Intraoperative Direct Measurement Of Aortic And Pulmonary Blood Flows In Patients With Severe Pulmonary Hypertension

In cases of congenital heart defects with pulmonary hypertension, sometimes it is difficult to decide the operability for total correction by preoperative cardiac catheterization. In five hi,oh-risk patients we performed direct intraoperative measurements (DIM) of aortic and pulmonary blood flows. Preoperative pulmonary-to-systemic flow ratio (Qp/Qs) ranged from 1.1 to 1.7, and pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) from 4.6 to 18.2 units.m(2). By DIM, Qp/Qs was calculated at 2.1 to 4.8, and PVR ranged from 3.6 to 7.4. We assessed that all patients had operabilities, and performed total corrections. Four patients are still alive in good condition. We propose that DIM of pulmonary and aortic flows will be a useful method for decision-making of operabilities in high risk patients.