Tetralogy of fallot repair at a new centre in North India: our growing experience

Background: Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) is the most common cyanotic congenital heart disease with complete surgical repair being its most appropriate treatment currently. Although in a developing country, pediatric cardiac surgery is not being practiced as frequently as the adult cardiac surgery either due to limited resources centres or surgeon reluctance. The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare the operative and postoperative outcome of the initial 50 patients with the subsequent 50 patients undergoing corrective surgery of TOF in a new cardiac centre. Methods: This is a comparative descriptive study performed at a single centre comprising of two groups of initial 50 and subsequent 50 patients who underwent complete surgical correction of TOF and compare their operative and postoperative outcomes. Results: The mean age of patients in group I and II were 82.4 and 74.3 months respectively. There was no significant difference in the preoperative characteristics of the patients of both groups. Among operative parameters there was significant improvement in the cardiopulmonary bypass time and aortic cross clamp time in group 2 with p value of 0.0017 and 0.0324 respectively. The requirement for transannular patch also came down in group 2 (p=0.016). Mortality in group 1 and 2 were 6 and 2 respectively (p=0.14), other postoperative characteristics were similar in both groups. Conclusions: With growing experience, proper planning and perseverance pediatric cardiac surgery too can be performed with acceptable results in a new centre.