THE FREQUENCY AND DEVELOPMENT OF ARRHYTHM IAS AFTER SENNING OPERATIONFOR TRANSPOSITION OF THE GREAT-ARTERIES

Question and method: To show the frequency of postoperative arrhythmia s after Senning repair, 24-hour electrocardiograms were evaluated in 7 0 patients. The ECGs were recorded within 1 month or up to 12 years af ter operation. Results. In 78.6 % of the patients sinus bradycardias o ccured and in 64.4 % junctional escape rhythms occured. 32.9 % showed an AV dissociation. Atrial escape rhythms occured in 15.7 %, sinus arr ests in 24.3 % and a sick sinus syndrom in 37.1 %. 95.7 % showed atria l premature beats and 21.4 % supraventricular tachycardias. Ventricula r premature beats, couplets and ventricular tachycardias occured in 27 .1 %, 11.4 % and 1.4 %. Atrial flutter developed in 5.7 %. First degre e atrioventricular block was noted in 8.5 % and complete atrioventricu lar block in 2.9 %. Observations showed an unpredictable - in some cas es even late - postoperative development of arrhythmias. Three childre n died of arrhythmias during the time of observation. Conclusion: Thes e results show that it is necessary to observe these patients carefull y by 24 hour-ECGs for the rest of their lives and that it might be nec essary to treat them.