[Outcome and monitoring of children following cardiac surgery].

The spectacular advances in the surgery for congenital heart disease in children and infants have led to the appearance of a new pathology, late complications which warrant a systematic cardiological surveillance, to allow the patient to lead as normal a life as possible, compatible with the potential sequelae of this type of surgery. These complications arise essentially after ventricular open heart surgery, especially for tetralogy of Fallot and for interventricular communications. The ventricular function may be altered, even if the functional status appears to be good, so it must be systematically monitored, in particular by isotope methods. Arrhythmias and conduction disorders require special attention as they are often delayed in their appearance and can be serious, even causing sudden death, hence the value of electrophysiological investigations and, more especially, Holter monitoring and stress tests. The problems are even more complex when the operation was only aimed at a physiological correction, especially after operations for complete transposition of the great vessels and so-called "ortho-terminal" operations for tricuspid atresia or a single ventricle. In these cases, as well as ventricular dysfunction, we also see arrhythmias which can sometimes be severe, requiring anti-arrhythmic treatment and sometimes electro-systolic pacing.