[Outcome of patients undergoing open-heart surgery for congenital heart disease in early childhood].

Corrective surgery for congenital heart disease is performed on progressively younger children in order to restore normal haemodynamics during infancy and to avoid the disadvantages of palliative operations. The authors consider the long-term outcome of children who have been operated for complete transposition of the great vessels--by physiological correction or by anatomical correction--for tetralogy of Fallot, interventricular communication, atrio-ventricular channel and aortic stenosis. The sequelae and complications of these various operations are reviewed and the authors stress, in particular, the risk of delayed arrhythmias and disturbances of ventricular function. The risk of delayed complications justifies long-term follow-up of all these patients, even those who are leading a normal life, i.e. the majority of them.