Mustard Procedure

The Mustard procedure was developed in 1963 by Dr. William Mustard at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada.

Dr. Mustard, with support from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, developed the first operation to correct a congenital heart defect that produced “blue babies”. The defect is called transposition of the great vessels. The condition was common and fatal. The defect causes blood from the lungs to flow back to the lungs and blood from the body to flow back to the body. This occurs because the aorta and the pulmonary artery, the two major arteries coming out of the heart, are connected to the wrong chambers. The babies look blue because there is insufficient oxygen circulating in their bodies.

The Mustard Procedure allows total correction of transposition of the great vessels. The procedure employs a baffle to redirect caval blood flow to the left atrium which then pumps blood to the left ventricle which then pumps the deoxygenated blood to the lungs. In a normal heart, de-oxygenated blood is pumped into the lungs via the right ventricle. Then it is distributed throughout the body via the left ventricle. In the Mustard procedure, blood is pumped to the lungs via the left ventricle and disseminated throughout the body via the right ventricle.

The Mustard procedure improved an 80% mortality rate in the first year of life to an 80% survival at age 20.