CURRENT SURGICAL-MANAGEMENT OF TETRALOGY OF FALLOT

The surgical management of tetralogy of Fallot has undergone important changes in recent years. Earlier of tetralogy of Fallot is now favore d by many institutions. At Stanford University Medical Center, we have performed definitive repair of tetralogy of Fallot at the time of pre sentation, regardless of the child's age, with few exceptions. In this report, we describe our results with early repair, and we believe the se support the contention that infants who undergo early repair (< 1 y ear of age) have postoperative results similar to those of children wh o undergo repair at an older age. Complications related to shunts are prevented by the infant repairs, and, in the future, reduced ventricul ar ectopy may be demonstrated to be a benefit of such repairs.