Spontaneous expectoration of a Blalock-Taussig shunt a decade after operation

Abstract

An eleven-year-old boy expectorated a foreign body in cough that was identified as the prosthetic graft used for a Blalock-Taussig shunt. The shunt procedure was done 10 years earlier, and a definitive repair for tetralogy of Fallot was done a year later. He had no other symptoms, and a computed tomography (CT) angiogram did not reveal any other significant anomaly. The reason for this extremely rare event is unclear.

Keywords

• Blalock-Taussig Shunt
• foreign body
• tetralogy of Fallot