I was one of the first people in the world to receive this surgery

hi when i was born in 1988, i was born with a congenital heart defect called
Transposition of the Great Arteries, back in 1988 there was only one kind of surgery widely used The first, developed in the late 1950s, creates a tunnel (a baffle) between the atria. This redirects the oxygen-rich blood to the right ventricle and aorta and the oxygen-poor blood to the left ventricle and the pulmonary artery. This operation is called an atrial or venous switch. It’s also called the Mustard procedure or the Senning procedure.




The second type is called the arterial switch operation. It wasn’t done routinely until the mid-1980s. The aorta and pulmonary arteries are switched back to their normal positions. The aorta is connected to the left ventricle, and the pulmonary artery is connected to the right ventricle. The coronary arteries, which carry the oxygen-rich blood that nourishes the heart muscle, also need to be re-attached to the new aorta. The arterial switch is now the preferred operation.
Can further repair be done in adulthood?

In rare cases, an adult patient who had an atrial switch operation may be a candidate for a takedown of their original operation and conversion to an arterial switch operation. This is more complicated than it sounds because this operation changes the main pumping chamber of the heart from the right to the left ventricle. Special additional procedures need to be done to prepare the left ventricle for this operation and they add considerable risk. This operation is only being done at a limited number of centers and usually only in adolescents or young adults.

Problems you may have

Patients who have undergone the Senning or Mustard procedures may have problems as they enter their twenties and thirties. The surgery in the atrium leaves areas of scar that can result in abnormal heart rhythms. Since the right ventricle remains the heart’s main pumping chamber, it can become weakened, resulting in signs and symptoms of congestive heart failure. About half of patients will develop blockage in the baffles that were created to reroute the blood flow.

Theoretically, the arterial switch will have a much lower complication rate in adulthood than the atrial switch. This has been true in the early follow-up but the operation hasn’t been done for a long enough time to know what problems may occur later in life. Patients may have valve leakage or coronary artery problems.


the surgery i had in 1988 was the Arterial Switch, brand new, and in the testing stages at the time, iwas born in Omaha Nebraska, and had my surgery at Mayo Clinic in minnesota, the operation was done by a doctor from Spain, with great success now i can live a normal happy life with no medicine, all i was left with was a heart murmur

here is some more info on the subject

www.americanheart.org...