Ann Thorac Surg 1998;66:2082-2084
© 1998 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
Invited Commentary
Tjark Ebels, MD, PhDa
a University Hospital Groningen, Hanzeplein, 1, Postbus 30.001, 9700RB Groningen, The Netherlands
Invited commentary
The paucity of articles on clinical results describing the repair of the combination of atrioventricular septal defects and tetralogy of Fallot is not in keeping with the reported incidence of this anomaly, said to be present in 5% to 10% of all patients with atrioventricular septal defect. The first article reporting successful corrective operation for this anomaly to my knowledge was by d’Allaines and colleagues [1] from Paris in 1969, who reported on 2 patients, who were 16 and 18 years old, who had a Blalock-Taussig shunt at 4 years and 4 months, respectively. The first survived the corrective procedure, the second died after pulmonary valvotomy [1]. Rastelli and associates [2] reported on 2 patients who were operated on for atrioventricular septal defect and were severely cyanotic because of associated valvular and infundibular stenosis; both died. The article by O’Blenes and associates in this issue of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, in which they report excellent results in 11 patients, is a significant addition to our scientific knowledge of this anomaly; the mortality of just 1 patient is outstanding (9.1%). The largest published series includes 35 patients who were operated on from 1980 to 1995; 29 of these patients underwent a definitive operation with an operative mortality of 10.3% [3]. A further series of 21 such patients was hidden in a Toronto report on 363 children with atrioventricular septal defects [4]. The lack of more articles . . . [Full Text of this Article]
Copyright © 1998 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.
