Palliative Therapies for Congenital Heart Disease with Ductus Dependent Pulmonary Circulation.

In neonates, the management of ductus dependent pulmonary circulation is challenging. There have been three palliative therapies for this lesion: the modified Blalock-Taussig shunt, ductal stenting and prostaglandin E infusions, for maintaining the ductal patency before definite operations. Debates remain with regard to the indications and disadvantages of three palliative therapies. The aim of this article is to give a brief review of these three palliative therapies.