Pulmonary Artery Banding in the Current Era: Is It Safe and Useful Yet

The main goal of this study was to assess the results of the pulmonary Artery (PA) banding in patients with congenital heart defects (CHD) and pulmonary Hypertension (PH). We analyzed data from 305 patients who had operation between April 2005 and April 2010 in Rajaee Heart Center, Tehran, Iran. All patients were approached through a Left thoracotomy and 20% of patients underwent PA banding based on Trusler's rule (Group1), 55% of them underwent PA banding based on PA pressure measurement (Group 2), and the rest of them (25%) based on surgeon experience (group 3). The follow-up period was 39±20 month and 75 % of patients (230 cases) had definitive repair of mean interval 23±10 month. The rate of anatomically and functionally effectiveness of PA banding in all groups were high (97% and 92% respectively).There were no significant differences in anatomically and functionally efficacy rate between all groups (p= 0.77, p=0.728 respectively). There was PA bifurcation stenosis in 6 cases (2%), and pulmonary valve injury in 1 case (0.3%). There were 11 patients (3.6%) intubated two days or more in intensive care unit (ICU). The mortality rate in PA banding was 2% and in definitive repair was 3%. With low mortality (2%) and morbidity and high efficacy rate of PA banding in our series, we believe that PA banding still plays a role in management of patients with CHD, particularly for infants with medical problems such as sepsis, low body weight, intracranial hemorrhage and associated non cardiac anomalies. We believe that PA banding can be done safely with low morbidity and mortality.