Central Shunting for Tetralogy of Fallot After Original Blalock-Taussig Shunt in a 34-Year-Old Woman

Abstract

The Blalock-Taussig (BT) shunt was first used to treat the tetralogy of Fallot in 1946. Since then, it has undergone improvements to create a short circuit in the pulmonary artery using an artificial blood vessel. The prognosis after palliative surgery alone is poor; hence, there is a need for radical surgery to improve the long-term prognosis. However, for various reasons, some patients have undergone the Blalock surgery alone without any other therapeutic interventions. In this report, we describe a case of a central shunt surgery performed to improve cyanosis in a patient who had been followed up for a long time without radical surgery after receiving an original BT shunt.