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A Blalock-Taussig shunt connects the detached subclavian artery directly into the side of the ipsilateral pulmonary artery, thus, providing effective palliation. It is particularly useful in the newborn with pulmonary atresia and in the young infant with either unstable or inadequate pulmonary blood flow and severe hypoxemia in whom complete open heart repair for some reason is considered inadvisable. It does not, of course, influence the status of the intracardiac abnormalities. In fact, the patient with severe right ventricular infundibular obstruction who undergoes a Blalock-Taussig shunt may develop complete infundibular obstruction, converting the patient to pulmonic atresia.