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Ann Thorac Surg 2003;75:322
© 2003 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

Correspondence

Can any conclusion be justified with a 27% loss of patients at follow-up?

Antonio F. Corno, MD, FRCSa

a Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Centre Hôpitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), 46 rue du Bugnon CH-1011, Lausanne, Switzerland

e-mail: antonio.corno{at}chuv.hospvd.ch

To the Editor:

The article by Faidutti and colleagues published in the January 2002 issue [1] has been studied with great interest and attention.

It was quite surprising to observe that the late results reported in the above study did not take into consideration that complete follow-up was achieved in only 368 of 501 patients (73%). Obviously, the reader should be aware that, with 27% of patients lost to follow-up (corresponding to 143 patients), the reported results do not provide reasonable assurance of the validity of the conclusions in favor of one or another surgical technique, as claimed by the authors.

A word of caution is respectfully recommended to the readers of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery with respect to acceptance and interpretation of the conclusions made.

References

  1. Faidutti B., Christenson J.T., Beghetti M., et al. How to diminish reoperation rates after initial repair of tetralogy of Fallot?. Ann Thorac Surg 2002;73:96-101.[Abstract/Free Full Text]




This Article
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