Modified Warden procedure for partial anomalous pulmonary venous return to the superior vena cava.

BACKGROUND: We report the long-term outcomes of our modified Warden cavoatrial technique, originally reported in 2010, for the treatment of anomalous pulmonary veins, which insert into the superior vena cava (SVC).

METHODS: This study was conducted between 2007 and 2015 in 26 patients (18 females, eight males) with a mean age of 22 years (range, 4-70 years). Twenty-four patients had a sinus venosus atrial septal defect and one patient had two partial anomalous pulmonary venous connections to the SVC. Two patients with persistent left SVC underwent right SVC division without reimplantation.

RESULTS: There were no short- or long-term mortalities. The mean follow-up was 4.6 years (range, three months to eight years). All patients had unobstructed caval and pulmonary venous flow and no long-term arrhythmias.

CONCLUSIONS: The modified cavoatrial anastomosis technique has shown excellent results with unobstructed pulmonary and systemic venous flow without long-term arrhythmias.