Cardiac status and health-related quality of life in the long term after surgical repair of tetralogy of Fallot in infancy and childhood.

The long-term results of surgical repair of tetralogy of Fallot were assessed by means of extensive cardiologic examination of 77 nonselected patients 14.7 +/- 2.9 years after surgical repair of tetralogy of Fallot in infancy and childhood. Because of the frequent use of a transannular patch (56%) for the relief of right ventricular outflow tract obstruction, the prevalence of elevated right ventricular systolic pressure was low (8%), but the prevalence of substantial right ventricular dilation with severe pulmonary regurgitation was high (58%). The exercise capacity of patients with a substantially dilated right ventricle proved to be significantly decreased (83% +/- 19% of predicted) when compared with that of patients with a near normal sized right ventricle (96% +/- 13%). Eight out of 10 patients who had needed treatment for symptomatic arrhythmia had supraventricular arrhythmia, which makes supraventricular arrhythmia--in numbers--a more important sequela in the long-term survivors than ventricular arrhythmia. Older age at the time of the operation and longer duration of follow-up were not associated with an increase in prevalence or clinical significance of sequelae.