Total correction of Fallot's tetralogy.

Eighty-six patients with Fallot's tetralogy underwent total correction; 80% of them were less than 15 years old. Twenty-five patients were operated upon with primary intracardiac repair, while 61 had undergone some form of palliative heart surgery previously. A patch of woven Dacron was used in the outflow tract reconstruction in 9 cases. The total mortality was 28%, 11 of the 23 deaths were presumed to be caused by low cardiac output, arrhythmia and cardiac arrest. The 62 patients surviving surgery have continuously had a good result and are without disability. The reasons for the relatively high mortality in this series, as well as the controversy concerning the one-stage or the two-stage approach for repair of Fallot's tetralogy, are briefly discussed.