Staged Fontan Surgery

Abstract

Over the past two decades, more and more modification to Fontan surgery had brightened the treatment of functional single ventricle and the reports on successful palliation had been continuously published. However, the early surgical mortality rate was still high and postoperative complications were difficult to treat. So, various staged Fontan operations had been carried out by many cardiac surgeons used different methods in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In principle, by the first stage of palliation, the superior vena cava blood was conducted to the pulmonary artery, and inferior vena cava blood mixed with a part of oxygenated arterial blood also to the pulmonary artery; by the second stage of palliation, the connection between inferior vena cava and pulmonary artery was performed.