Experiences in the Surgical Treatment of Tetralogy of Fallot: A Comparison of Results with and without a Previous Palliative Operation

The operative results on a group of children with tetralogy of Fallot treated by a variety of surgical methods has been presented. It seems apparent that those children undergoing a corrective operation with open-heart techniques who have previously had a palliative procedure have a mortality rate less than half those undergoing the same corrective open-heart operation, but without the previous palliative procedure. This lower mortality rate compares favorably with the operative mortality rate of children who have a left-to-right shunt through a ventricular septal defect with pulmonic stenosis. Whether this lends support to the previously presented idea that a palliative procedure prepares the vascular bed for the corrective surgery remains to be seen.