CLINICAL STUDIES
Is it necessary to routinely fenestrate an extracardiac Fontan?
LeNardo D. Thompson, MDa,
Edwin Petrossian, MDa,
Doff B. McElhinney, MDa,
Natalia A. Abrikosova, MSa,
Phillip Moore, MDa,
V. Mohan Reddy, MDa and
Frank L. Hanley, MDa
a Divisions of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Pediatric Cardiology, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA
Manuscript received October 19, 1998;
revised manuscript received March 4, 1999,
accepted April 22, 1999.
Reprint requests and correspondence: Dr. LeNardo D. Thompson, UCSF Medical Center, 505 Parnassus Avenue, M593, San Francisco, California 94143-0118
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Abstract
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OBJECTIVES
This study was conducted to assess the need for, and use of, fenestration of an extracardiac conduit Fontan.
BACKGROUND
Fenestration of a Fontan connection has been proposed as a means of improving outcomes of single ventricle palliation. The benefit of fenestration is likely to be greatest in the early postoperative period when patients may experience increased pulmonary vascular resistance and decreased ventricular function due to the effects of cardiopulmonary bypass, aortic cross-clamping and positive pressure ventilation. However, there are potential drawbacks to fenestration. The utility of fenestration with extracardiac Fontan operation has not been determined.
METHODS
Since 1992, 81 patients have undergone a modification of the Fontan procedure in which an extracardiac inferior cavopulmonary conduit is used in combination with a previously staged bidirectional Glenn anastomosis. We conducted a retrospective review of these patients.
RESULTS
Fenestration was performed selectively in 32 patients (39%), including only 2 of the last 38 (5%). In seven patients, a fenestration was placed or clipped in the early postoperative period without cardiopulmonary bypass. There were two operative deaths. Prolonged (>2 weeks) pleural drainage occurred in 13 patients, 8 with fenestration and 5 without. In addition to undergoing earlier Fontan in our experience, patients who had a fenestration placed had significantly higher preoperative pulmonary vascular resistance, significantly higher common atrial pressure after Fontan and significantly lower post-Fontan systemic arterial oxygen saturation. Fontan pressure did not differ between nonfenestrated and fenestrated patients. At follow-up ranging to five years, there were two late deaths and no patients developed protein losing enteropathy.
CONCLUSIONS
Fenestration is not necessary in most Fontan patients when an extracardiac conduit technique is performed as described in this article, and therefore, should not be performed routinely with the extracardiac conduit Fontan. The need for fenestration should be assessed after cardiopulmonary bypass when hemodynamics can be evaluated accurately. Fenestration can be placed and revised easily without bypass and with minimal intervention in patients with an extracardiac conduit Fontan.
Since the Fontan operation was described in 1971, numerous modifications of the concept of right heart bypass have been used for the management of functional univentricular heart disease (1). Two of the modifications that are most commonly used in the current era are fenestrated Fontan and extracardiac total cavopulmonary anastomosis. Both of these approaches may help to improve the early postoperative hemodynamic state and, thus, perioperative outcomes. Fenestration allows for decompression of the Fontan circuit and augmentation of cardiac output, which may be important in the face of impaired pulmonary vascular and ventricular function in the early postoperative period. However, fenestration mitigates one of the primary objectives of Fontan completion by leaving the patient with a right to left shunt and consequently subnormal systemic arterial oxygen saturation. There are other potential drawbacks to fenestration, including the need to expose the patient to the risk and cost of subsequent interventions to close the fenestration at a later date, as well as a documented risk of paradoxical embolization and stroke (2,3). Extracardiac conduit cavopulmonary anastomosis, on the other hand, may improve early postoperative function by minimizing the degree of ventricular and pulmonary vascular dysfunction that occurs in the perioperative period, primarily by allowing the operation to be performed on a warm beating heart with limited, partial or even no cardiopulmonary bypass, as well as no aortic cross-clamping. In light of the potential hemodynamic advantages of the extracardiac conduit modification of the Fontan operation, there may be less need for fenestration than with other types of Fontan operation. To address the issue of the need for and use of fenestration in patients undergoing extracardiac cavopulmonary anastomosis, we reviewed our five-year experience with the extracardiac conduit Fontan procedure.
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Methods
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Patients.
Between July 1992 and August 1997, 81 consecutive patients underwent extracardiac conduit total cavopulmonary anastomosis at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, Oakland Children’s Hospital and the Valley Children’s Hospital in Fresno. This excludes an additional eight patients who had a previous atriopulmonary or atrioventricular Fontan connection revised to an extracardiac conduit Fontan during the same period (4) and two patients who underwent lateral tunnel Fontan early in our experience. Median age was 4.1 years (1.5 to 44 years) and median weight was 16 kg (10 to 68 kg). Primary diagnoses are summarized in Table 1. At the time of Fontan completion, pulmonary blood flow was supplied by a Glenn anastomosis only in 13 patients, by a Glenn anastomosis plus another source in 63 patients, and by another source only in 5 patients. All patients had undergone preoperative echocardiography and catheterization. Preoperative hemodynamic data are summarized in Table 2.
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Table 2 Preoperative and Postoperative Data in Patients Undergoing Extracardiac Fontan With and Without Fenestration
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Operative techniques.
Through a standard median sternotomy, a modified Fontan circulation was completed by connecting the inferior vena cava to the pulmonary arteries with an extracardiac conduit of either expanded polytetrafluoroethylene or aortic allograft. Normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass was used with a calcium-supplemented blood prime. The heart remained actively beating, with no cooling unless concomitant intracardiac procedures were performed. Indications for fenestration of the Fontan have changed over the course of our experience. Our current hemodynamic guidelines for considering fenestration are a pressure in the Fontan circuit following bypass  18 mm Hg and a transpulmonary pressure gradient 10 mm Hg. However, the decision to fenestrate is based on other considerations as well, including preoperative status and hemodynamics, whether intracardiac procedures were performed, postbypass ventricular function, duration of cardiopulmonary bypass and whether the aorta was cross-clamped. When fenestration was performed between the conduit and right atrial free wall, it was done without return to cardiopulmonary bypass, with either an expanded polytetrafluoroethylene tube (4 to 8 mm) or direct side to side anastomosis using partial occlusion vascular clamps (Fig. 1). In selected cases, an adjustable tube fenestration was placed (5).
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Figure 1 Technique of fenestrating an extracardiac conduit Fontan with an expanded polytetrafluoroethylene tube graft. (A) After completion of the Fontan conduit anastomoses, partial occlusion vascular clamps are placed on the medial aspect of the conduit and across the tip of the right atrial appendage. Incisions are made for anastomosis of the fenestration tube, as indicated by the dashed lines. (B) The fenestration tube (4 to 8 mm expanded polytetrafluoroethylene vascular tube graft) is anastomosed to the incisions in the conduit and the right atrium, using continuous 5-0 polypropylene suture.
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Data analysis.
Data were collected on retrospective review of patient records. Cross-sectional follow-up was obtained between February and April 1998 in all patients. Comparison of continuous variables between patients who did and did not have fenestration was performed using independent samples Student t tests. Dichotomous variables were compared using the Fisher exact test or chi-square analysis. SPSS for Windows 6.1 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois) was used for statistical analysis. Data are expressed as mean ± standard deviation or median (range).
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Results
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Thirty-two patients underwent fenestration, 24 with an expanded polytetrafluoroethylene tube (3 adjustable) and 8 with side to side anastomosis of the conduit and the right atrium. Twenty-eight of the fenestrations were placed at the time of the Fontan operation, while the other four were performed in the intensive care unit on the first postoperative day. All fenestrations were performed without cardiopulmonary bypass. Three patients who had fenestrations placed at the time of Fontan underwent revision of the fenestration in the early postoperative period to decrease the degree of shunting. Among the first 43 patients, the fenestration rate was 70% (n = 30), and only 2 of the most recent 38 patients underwent fenestration (5%, p = 0.01). The only demographic or preoperative diagnostic variable to differ between patients who did and did not have fenestration was preoperative pulmonary vascular resistance (Table 2) although there was a trend toward significance in the correlation between aortic cross-clamping and fenestration (7 of 32 fenestrated vs. 4 of 49 nonfenestrated, p = 0.10).
There were two operative deaths in nonfenestrated patients. Both patients had postoperative liver failure, presumed to be related to possible hepatic venous compromise by the snare of the inferior venous cannula in one case. Both of these patients had low Fontan pressures. Two patients needed early reoperation for reasons other than fenestration (one with and one without fenestration). The only postoperative hemodynamic variable to differ significantly between fenestrated and nonfenestrated patients was common atrial pressure in the operating room (Table 2). Fontan pressure and transpulmonary gradient did not differ significantly between groups in the operating room or on postoperative day 1 (Table 2). Median arterial oxygen saturations at discharge were 91% in fenestrated and 96% in nonfenestrated patients (p = 0.05). Prolonged chest tube drainage (>14 days) occurred in 13 patients, 8 with and 5 without fenestration. All but three of these patients were in the first half of our experience. Five patients with prolonged chest tube drainage had a transpulmonary pressure gradient 10 mm Hg, four of whom had a fenestration. Duration of intubation, stay in the intensive care unit and hospitalization did not differ between patients with and without fenestration.
At follow-up ranging from 6 months to 5.5 years (median 3.4 years), there were two late deaths, one in each group. The first patient returned 3.5 years postoperatively for resection of an obstructive bulboventricular foramen and died of ventricular failure. The second death was a patient who returned 6 months postoperatively with chronic bilateral pleural effusions and liver dysfunction and developed a coagulopathy and died of bleeding after placement of a fenestration. Three patients have returned for operative (n = 2) or transcatheter (n = 1) closure of the fenestration. There have been no patients with protein losing enteropathy or thromboembolic complications.
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Discussion
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The extracardiac conduit modification of the Fontan operation has many potential advantages, including avoidance of aortic cross-clamping and hypothermia, shorter duration of cardiopulmonary bypass and possibly a more streamlined hydrodynamic connection (6,7). These advantages are key factors for preserving ventricular and pulmonary vascular function in the early postoperative period. It is well-documented that cardiopulmonary bypass and cardioplegic arrest cause transient impairment of cardiopulmonary function in the early postoperative period, characterized in part by myocardial and interstitial pulmonary edema, decreased ventricular and pulmonary compliance, increased myocardial energy demand and coronary and pulmonary endothelial dysfunction due to several factors (8,9). These mechanisms of cardiac and pulmonary vascular dysfunction can be minimized with some of the techniques used in the extracardiac conduit Fontan procedure, such as avoiding hypothermia and ischemic cardioplegic arrest, minimizing the duration of cardiopulmonary bypass and performing as much of the procedure as possible with partial bypass with perfusion of the lungs by flowing through the superior cavopulmonary shunt, or without bypass at all. In addition, aortic cross clamping may be avoided and cardiopulmonary bypass minimized by performing any necessary intracardiac procedures before Fontan completion, usually at the time of the bidirectional cavopulmonary anastomosis.
In part because of the hemodynamic benefits that the extracardiac technique confers in the early postoperative period, fenestration may not be as important as it appears to be following other modifications of the Fontan procedure. Because fenestration allows right to left shunting and increases ventricular filling pressure, it serves to augment cardiac output, which appears to be most critical in the early postoperative period when the instantaneous hazard for death is highest (10). The concept of a right to left pop off communication and application of fenestration to the Fontan circulation was introduced in the late 1980’s (11,12). Although fenestration was initially applied to high-risk patients (13), it soon became routine at a number of centers, and remains so today (14,15). In Fontan modifications such as the intracardiac lateral tunnel, fenestration has probably contributed to improved outcomes during the past decade. In fact, absence of fenestration has been shown in one large series to be a strong risk factor for early failure (14). Other centers, however, have demonstrated similarly good results without routine fenestration of the lateral tunnel (16,17). Although perioperative advantages to fenestration have been demonstrated, the long-term benefit of fenestration has not been established, although several studies have documented changes in Fontan pressure, cardiac output and oxygen delivery after closure or test occlusion of the fenestration (18–20). There is no doubt that the advantages of fenestration will sufficiently improve outcome in some patients to outweigh the documented risk. However, it has yet to be determined what factors may be associated with a risk-benefit analysis favorable for fenestration in the long term.
How often is a fenestration necessary? Clearly, selection criteria for the Fontan will strongly influence the need for a fenestration. If the philosophy of a given center is that all or most single ventricle patients, even those with marginal ventricular function or pulmonary vascular resistance, should receive a Fontan, then clearly, fenestration will be necessary more frequently to optimize survival and functional status. Fenestration in this setting is permanent, because the underlying marginal physiology is fixed. Conversely, the need for temporary fenestrations, those necessary to improve perioperative morbidity and mortality related to transient changes in myocardial and pulmonary vascular function, will depend on intraoperative techniques used during creation of the Fontan.
Our results demonstrate that fenestration is not necessary in most patients undergoing extracardiac conduit Fontan in the current era. Although we cannot document an incidence of need for fenestration on the basis of this experience, because of changing criteria and the likelihood that some of our fenestrated patients did not necessarily require fenestration, we estimate that fenestration is necessary in about 15% of patients according to the techniques and methodology described in this manuscript. Only 2 of the last 38 patients had a fenestration placed, and our tendency has been to perform fenestration less and less frequently, because it has become clear that fenestration is not generally required. It should be emphasized that the change in use of fenestration over time in our series is primarily explained by our evolving techniques with the extracardiac Fontan and the gradual recognition that the fenestration was of no tangible benefit in most cases. At the start of this series, we had a clear bias favoring fenestration; over time this bias has reversed.
Despite the improved postoperative hemodynamic state after extracardiac Fontan, there will nevertheless be some patients who will benefit from fenestration. In such patients, extracardiac conduit Fontan also offers many advantages. The decision to fenestrate a Fontan is best made after discontinuing cardiopulmonary bypass and evaluating cardiac and pulmonary vascular function. With the extracardiac conduit Fontan, it is possible to create, revise or close a fenestration off bypass, either in the operating room or in the intensive care unit. This greatly increases the use of the fenestration concept, because it accords the surgeon more flexibility in its application. In our experience this has clearly been the case because 22% of patients (7 of 32) who have had a fenestration either had it placed or revised postoperatively in the intensive care unit. To place or revise a fenestration in the intensive care unit in the early postoperative period is not a trivial matter, but it engenders very low morbidity and is an extremely useful option. In addition, as some have suggested, late fenestration may be effective treatment for protein losing enteropathy, in which case fenestration can be performed without bypass (21). The type of fenestration in extracardiac Fontan, side to side versus tube graft, does not seem to make a difference, and the two techniques are equally straightforward to perform. The tube graft can be made adjustable more readily (5), whereas a side to side anastomosis can be readily closed by transcatheter device. We have not performed embolization of tube fenestrations in our experience, although this should be possible, especially when a small diameter tube is used.
The findings of this study are limited by its retrospective design and by the evolution in our approach to the extracardiac Fontan procedure and to fenestration. Patients were not randomized to fenestration or no fenestration, and our criteria for fenestrating the Fontan connection have not remained constant over time. Currently, our general guidelines for considering fenestration are a Fontan pressure 18 or a transpulmonary pressure gradient 10. However, these values are flexible depending on the clinical context. As discussed above, intraoperative pressure measurements may not always provide sufficient information to determine who will and will not benefit from fenestration. The threshold for fenestrating an extracardiac conduit Fontan will be lower in patients who have undergone concomitant intracardiac procedures or especially long bypass runs. As mentioned earlier, our rate of fenestration was higher earlier in our experience (70% of the first 43 patients vs. 5% of the most recent 38 patients). This may be due to a combination of factors. We have evolved in our approach to the extracardiac conduit Fontan procedure over this period, performing intracardiac procedures less often, limiting our use of cardioplegic arrest and using a technique of partial cardiopulmonary bypass whenever possible, all factors that may facilitate preservation of myocardial and pulmonary vascular function. During this phase of our experience, the decision to place a fenestration was not based on objective criteria but on a routine protocol of fenestration. In addition, patients earlier in the series were generally older (p = 0.10) and less likely to have undergone optimization of their preoperative status with early staging to a bidirectional Glenn. As more of our patients reach Fontan age after early palliation and volume unloading, we anticipate that the trend toward decreased need for fenestration will continue. Despite the limitations described above, we believe that our results nevertheless provide strong support for the arguments advanced in this report.
We conclude that fenestration is not necessary in most Fontan patients when an extracardiac conduit technique is performed as described in this report. Therefore fenestration should not be performed routinely with the extracardiac conduit Fontan. The need for fenestration should be assessed after cardiopulmonary bypass when hemodynamics can be evaluated accurately. Although we have defined rough hemodynamic criteria for considering a fenestration, the values are largely empiric, and further study of diagnostic, hemodynamic and operative factors predicting the need for and benefit of fenestration is necessary. Fenestration can be placed and revised easily without bypass and with minimal intervention in patients with an extracardiac conduit Fontan. Nevertheless, further study of diagnostic, hemodynamic and operative factors predicting the need for and benefit of fenestration in patients with an extracardiac Fontan is necessary.
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Abstract
Methods