Intermediate-term mortality and cardiac transplantation in infants with single-ventricle lesions: Risk factors and their interaction with shunt type

ObjectiveThe study objective was to identify factors associated with death and cardiac transplantation in infants undergoing the Norwood procedure and to determine differences in associations that might favor the modified Blalock–Taussig shunt or a right ventricle-to-pulmonary artery shunt.MethodsWe used competing risks methodology to analyze death without transplantation, cardiac transplantation, and survival without transplantation. Parametric time-to-event modeling and bootstrapping were used to identify independent predictors.ResultsData from 549 subjects (follow-up, 2.7 ± 0.9 years) were analyzed. Mortality risk was characterized by early and constant phases; transplant was characterized by only a constant phase. Early phase factors associated with death included lower socioeconomic status (P = .01), obstructed pulmonary venous return (P