Recruitment of Borderline Ventricles

Sometimes, babies are born with ventricles that are slightly too small to perform the job they are meant to do. This occurs when the ventricles are considered borderline. This means there is concern that they won’t be able to support healthy circulation. Through this type of biventricular reconstruction, we can improve these ventricles so that they can perform the job they were meant to do, avoiding a single ventricle palliation (surgery).

Recruitment of borderline ventricles is performed for the following conditions, among others:

Borderline hypoplastic right/left heart syndrome (HRHS/HLHS), with these congenital heart defects, the left or right side of the heart is underdeveloped and is too small to handle a normal amount of blood flow.

Unbalanced AV canal defect, also known as unbalanced AV septal defect (AVSD) is when the upper collecting chambers of the heart (the atria) are separated from the bottom pumping chambers of the heart (the ventricles) by two valves, the mitral valve on the left side of the heart and the tricuspid valve on the right side of the heart. With unbalanced AV (atrioventricular) canal defect, the heart did not develop in the normal way before birth, and there is a large hole in the center of the heart with just one valve separating the top chambers from the bottom chambers. In addition, one ventricle is larger than the other.

Congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (CCTGA) is a rare heart defect where the two heart ventricles are reversed, as are their roles, leaving the weaker right ventricle to pump blood to the body. When there is pulmonary stenosis, an RV-PA conduit (artificial tube) is often necessary in the repair and will require surgical replacement over time. A pulmonary root translocation instead of an RV-PA conduit avoids the need for future surgical conduit replacements.