Postoperative data
Morbidity: MAE was observed in 41 (23%) patients. Ten patients (5%) needed unplanned reoperations, four (2%) needed CPR, 16 (9%) needed ECMO, two (1%) experienced neurological complications, eight (5%) required the implantation of a permanent pacemaker, five (2%) experienced ARF, and one (0.6%) experienced diaphragm paralysis. The incidence of ARF was higher in the CA group and the difference between the groups was found to be statistically significant (P  = 0.05). The incidence of delayed sternal closure was also higher in the CA group (P  < 0.001). The incidence of wound complications was higher in the BHAS group (P  = 0.03). There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of total incidence of MAE, mechanical ventilation time, intensive care, or hospital stay time (P  = 0.65, 0.99, 0.46, and 0.34, respectively) (Table 3). Recurrent nerve paralysis was observed higher in the BHAS group (3% vs 0 p= 0.14). All of these patients had unilateral paralysis. In none of our patients we observed oral feeding problems at discharge.
Mortality: Mortality was observed in 21 (11%) patients, 13 (62%) of whom had undergone concomitant complex cardiac procedures other than VSD repair. 3 (14%) patients had isolated arch reconstruction , 5 (23%) had arch reconstruction and concomitant VSD closure. Eight (38%) of them were single ventricle patients.
There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of mortality (P  = 0.58). One (0.7%) patient with single-ventricle physiology died 5 years after the operation.
Mid-term reoperation and reintervention: Follow-up data were available on 145 patients (95%). The follow-up period of the BH group was 2.3 ± 1.7 years. The follow-up period of the BH group was 4.8 ± 1.7 years. Balloon angioplasty was performed in five (2%) patients and reoperation was performed in 11 (6%) patients due to restenosis. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of reoperation or reintervention rates (P  = 0.44 and 0.34, respectively) (Table 4). In terms of reoperation and reintervention rates, we did not observe a statistically significant difference between single ventricle and double ventricle  patients (P  = 0.59 and 0.41, respectively).
Freedom from reintervention rate for 1 year and 8 years was 98% (Figure 3). Freedom from reoperation rates were 96% for 1 year and 93% for 8 years (Figure 4). There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of freedom from reoperation or reintervention (P  = 0.47 and 0.76, respectively) (Figures 3 and 4).