RESUMO
BACKGROUND: This study describes our surgical results of transventricular complete repair of tetralogy of Fallot in infants. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Eight hundred and forty children underwent complete repair of TOF between January 1990 and April 2002 in our institute. One hundred sixty infants of them were included to this survey. Mean age at repair was 8.1+/-2.6 months (3~12). Correction was accomplished through a short right ventriculotomy less than 30% of ventricular height in all patients. A transannular patch was necessary in 78 patients (49%). RESULT: There were four early deaths. There were no late deaths. Follow-up with mean duration of 66 months was completed in all survivors. All patients are currently in New York Heart Association functional class I or II. Twenty patients required late reoperations. Actuarial freedom from reoperation at 1 and 10 years were 94% and 87% respectively. Two-dimensional and Doppler echocardiographic follow-up studies showed good right ventricular function in all patients except three. CONCLUSION: Our results suggested that early complete repair of TOF yield the acceptable results with low mortality and morbidity. Transventricular repair of intracardiac pathology can be safely applied to these patient population, yielding good postoperative right ventricular function.