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Helen Brooke Taussig (May 24, 1898 – May 20, 1986) was an American cardiologist, working in Baltimore and Boston, who founded the field of pediatric cardiology.She is credited with developing the concept for a procedure that would extend the lives of children born with Tetralogy of Fallot (the most common cause of blue baby syndrome).
The Blalock–Thomas–Taussig shunt (BTT shunt), [1] previously known as the Blalock–Taussig Shunt (BT shunt), [2] is a surgical procedure used to increase blood flow to the lungs in some forms of congenital heart disease [3] such as pulmonary atresia and tetralogy of Fallot, which are common causes of blue baby syndrome. [3]
The first surgical palliation was carried out in 1944 at Johns Hopkins. [84] The procedure was conducted by surgeon Alfred Blalock and cardiologist Helen B. Taussig, with Vivien Thomas also providing substantial contributions and listed as an assistant. [3] This first surgery was depicted in the film Something the Lord Made. [63]
The surgery had been designed and first performed on laboratory dogs by Thomas, who taught the technique to Blalock. Although Thomas perfected the technique, he could not perform the surgery because he was not a doctor. The surgery was not completely successful, since Eileen Saxon became cyanotic again a few months later. Another shunt was ...
When he retired in 1964, he was named a Professor Emeritus of Surgery, as well as a Surgeon-in-Chief Emeritus for Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Hospital. [ 5 ] Blalock published more than 200 articles along with a book titled Principles of Surgery, Shock and Other Problems.
The first successful operation to treat blue baby syndrome caused by tetralogy of Fallot occurred at Johns Hopkins University in 1944. Through a collaboration between pediatric cardiologist Helen Taussig, surgeon Alfred Blalock, and surgical technician Vivien Thomas, the Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt was created. Dr.
Vivien Theodore Thomas (August 29, 1910 [1] – November 26, 1985) [2] was an American laboratory supervisor who, in the 1940s, played a major role in developing a procedure now called the Blalock–Thomas–Taussig shunt used to treat blue baby syndrome (now known as cyanotic heart disease) along with surgeon Alfred Blalock and cardiologist Helen B. Taussig. [3]
Following the bidirectional Glenn shunt, failure of the procedure can be broadly categorized as failure of procedure, cardiac dysfunction related to surgery, or cardiac dysfunction leading to death before further surgical intervention. [8] Retrospective reviews demonstrate failure of the procedure in 6.5% of patients.