Use of Internal Thoracic Artery as a Systemic–Pulmonary Artery Shunt

Numerous technical and physiologic problems have been described with conventional systemic–pulmonary artery shunts. We report the case of a 1-year-old girl in whom the internal thoracic artery was used to create a systemic–pulmonary artery shunt after the failure of a previous Blalock-Taussig shunt. The internal thoracic artery as an alternative systemic–pulmonary artery shunt may offer several potential advantages and can be used successfully to improve cyanotic heart disease in selected cases.