Atrial switch is a heart operation performed to treat

dextro-Transposition of the great arteries dextro-Transposition of the great arteries (d-Transposition of the great arteries, dextro-TGA, or d-TGA) is a potentially life-threatening birth defect in the large arteries of the heart. The primary arteries (the aorta and the pulmonary artery) ...

. It involves the construction of an atrial baffle which redirects the blood coming into the atria to restore the connection between systemic and pulmonary circulation. Two variants of the atrial switch operation developed – the

Senning procedure The Senning procedure is an atrial switch heart operation performed to treat transposition of the great arteries. It is named after its inventor, the Swedish cardiac surgeon Åke Senning (1915–2000), also known for implanting the first permanent ...

(1950s) which uses the patient's own tissue (

pericardium The pericardium, also called pericardial sac, is a double-walled sac containing the heart and the roots of the great vessels. It has two layers, an outer layer made of strong connective tissue (fibrous pericardium), and an inner layer made o ...

) to construct the baffle, and the

Mustard procedure The Mustard procedure was developed in 1963 by Dr. William Mustard at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Mustard, with support from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, developed an alternative and simplified t ...

(1960s), which uses a synthetic material. It has largely been replaced by the

arterial switch operation Arterial switch operation (ASO) or arterial switch, is an open heart surgical procedure used to correct dextro-transposition of the great arteries (d-TGA). Its development was pioneered by Canadian cardiac surgeon William Mustard and it was na ...

. The operation is more commonly performed in developing countries, where the condition frequently presents late.

References

Cardiac surgery {{cardiology-stub