What is it about?

Hypoplastic left heart (HLHS) is a congenital anomaly that is lethal after birth unless addressed immediately with a series of life-saving surgeries. In HLHS, the left ventricle fails to develop, due perhaps to mitral or aortic valve stenosis, or aortic hypoplasia. The right ventricle must compensate. There is much we don't understand about HLHS because there have not been good animal models for the fetal and postnatal periods.

Why is it important?

A reproducible large-animal model will enable us to study more about how to help infants with HLHS.

Find this paper in JTCVS Open and in Pubmed.