[Intraoperative damage to the myocardium and heart failure upon radical correction of the tetralogy of Fallot].

The ultrastructure of contractile myocardium at the stages of anoxia and after switching in the coronary circulation was studied on the material of 128 biopsies of the myocardium from 51 patients with Fallot's tetrad operated radically under conditions of artificial circulation and anoxic cardiac arrest. Heterogeneity of cell organelles damage made it difficult to evaluate myocardial injury on the whole. To make morphological data more objective, a geometric method of quantitative analysis was used which permitted to distinguish two groups of damage and to correlate them with the pattern of cardiac activity restoration and the course of the postoperational period. The results indicate some relationship between changes in the ultrastructure of mitochondria and the development of cardiac insufficiency in patients with Fallot's tetrad.