AN EXPOSITION on those cardiovascular malformations which may be treated surgically must cover a large variety of conditions, for example, conditions for which certain operative procedures have proved curative or beneficial, those for which operations have not as yet been established but have been attempted or suggested and those for which there seem to be no appropriate surgical technics but which must be considered in the clinical differential diagnosis of malformations for which operations are established.
The malformations to be considered in this communication are those wherein a cardiovascular shunt is associated. Thus, such conditions as the usual type of coarctation of the aorta in which the ductus arteriosus is closed and the malformations of the aortic arch system which may cause symptoms by compression of either the trachea or the esophagus will not be discussed. The discussion, however, will include those types of aortic coarctation which are associated with