A new cardiac surgery, which benefits infants born with underdeveloped hearts, may improve survival rates during the first year of life, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

To examine success rates of this surgery, 15 health centers examined the outcomes of a total of 549 newborns who had undergone procedures to fix hypo-plastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). This deformity, which is found in one out of every 5,000 live births, is found when the left ventricle is too small to function properly.(think there are words missing here)

A team of researchers compared babies that had two procedures, a modified Blalock-Taussig shunt (MBT), which carries blood from arteries off of the aorta to the pulmonary artery, and a right ventricle-pulmonary artery (RVPA) shunt, which directly links the right ventricle to the pulmonary artery. The MBT is a more traditional procedure used in these scenarios, while the RVPA is the more advanced surgical option.

After 12 months had passed since the surgeries, 74 percent of the infants who had the RVPA procedure had survived, compared to 64 percent of patients who had the MBT surgery. However, the RVPA group did experience a higher rate of complications that led to further procedures to keep the shunts open.

Each year, approximately 4 to 8 percent of infants born in the U.S. have been diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, according the American Heart Association.