Excellent work! Infants too weak or underdeveloped may not survive open-heart surgery and must therefore undergo a temporary, minimally-invasive procedure that will improve blood flow until they are candidates for the full operation.

You place a shunt between the subclavian artery and pulmonary artery (known as a BT, or Blalock-Taussig, shunt) to provide an additional pathway for blood to travel to the lungs for oxygenation. You decide to monitor the infant’s progress closely in order to determine the appropriate time for the full surgery and have the parents schedule a follow-up appointment.