A Review of Total Correction in 48 Cases of Tetralogy of Fallot

Fallot 사징증(四徵症) 외과적(外科的) 완전교정(完全矯正)에 대한 임상적(臨床的) 고찰(考察)

A Total of Forty eight patients underwent open-heart surgery for correction of tetralogy of Fallot at the Seoul National University Hospital from January 1974 to October 1976, with an overall survival rate of 77 per cent. Operative mortality varied according to severity of the lesion, age of the patient, nature of previous surgical treatment and presence or absence of an outflow tract patch across the pulmonary valve ring. Eleven patients died in the early postoperative period and thirty seven patients were discharged from the hospital alive. A patch of the right ventricular outflow tract and pulmonary annulus was required to relieve pulmonic stenosis in 24 patients. There were 10 deaths in this group (42%) as compared to 1 death in the group of 24 patients who were corrected without a patch. Operative mortality was especially higher when an inlay patch was placed across the pulmonary valve ring. This may be related to the possibly greater anatomic severity of these cases and to the longer operating time when a patch was used. The electrocardiogram showed right ventricular hypertrophy in 35 cyanotic patients. Intraventricular conduction was normal in 34 patients before operation. It was normal postoperatively in only 5 of 34 patients in this group who survived surgery. Complete right bundle branch block appeared at operation in 21 patients, and 8 patients developed incomplete right bundle branch block. Major causes of death were progressive cardiac failure (4), Complete atrioventricular dissociation (3), bleeding (2), cardiac tamponade (1), and sudden cardiac arrest (1)