Neonatal cardiac surgery - Anatomic, physiologic, and technical considerations

Neonatal repair for all cardiac lesions is an attractive but as yet unattai nable goal for the surgical team. We are obliged to consider both lesions t hat must be repaired in the absolute neonatal period, and those for which l ater repair is an option. This article serves as an update on some issues r elating to neonatal heart surgery. The first section deals with selected ge neral aspects of perioperative support. The second section discusses two re presentative lesions that illustrate many of the problems encountered in ne onatal cardiac surgery: transposition of the great arteries and hypoplastic left heart syndrome.