RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Balloon expandable stents for systemic venous pathway stenosis late after Mustard’s operation JF Heart JO Heart FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and British Cardiovascular Society SP 225 OP 229 DO 10.1136/hrt.79.3.225 VO 79 IS 3 A1 F A Bu’Lock A1 A J P Tometzki A1 D J Kitchiner A1 R Arnold A1 I Peart A1 K P Walsh YR 1998 UL http://heart.bmj.com/content/79/3/225.abstract AB Objectives Description and evaluation of current experience with the use of balloon expandable stents for the relief of systemic venous pathway stenosis late after Mustard’s operation.Design Retrospective observational study of technical procedures, angiographic, and haemodynamic findings.Patients Twenty long term survivors of Mustard’s operation for transposition of the great arteries (TGA) with angiographic evidence of systemic venous pathway narrowing.Intervention Systemic venous pathway stenoses were stented using balloon expandable Palmaz stents.Results Twenty seven stents were deployed across 24 stenoses. Seventeen stents were placed in the inferior baffle (16 patients), with an increase in mean (range) minimum diameter from 9.6 (4.5–15.9) to 16.5 (11.9–22.2) mm (p = 0.007), and a reduction in mean pressure gradient from 3.1 (0–8) to 0.67 (0–3) mm Hg (p = 0.002). Eight stents were placed in the superior pathways of eight patients, with diameters widened from 9.1 (3.5–14.1) to 15.2 (8.7–19.2) mm (p = 0.018), and gradients reduced from 6.4 (2–11) to 0.9 (0–2) mm Hg (p = 0.02). Two badly deployed stents were safely withdrawn from their intracardiac positions and redeployed in the iliac vein. Transvenous pacemaker insertion was facilitated by prior stent insertion.Conclusions The use of balloon expandable stents for late systemic pathway narrowing after Mustard’s operation is safe and effective. The beneficial effects of stenting are likely to be more durable than those of balloon angioplasty alone, but longer term follow up is required.