Abstract

The principal aim of surgery for congenital heart anomalies is the establishment of normal hemodynamic function. Palliative and corrective operations are selected with time to attain this end with minimal risk. In recent years, as operative mortality after primary total correction is lower than the mortality after early palliation and delayed correction, corrective operations in infants have increasingly supplanted palliative ones. Two hundred and eighteen infants below 10 kg with congenital heart anomalies underwent primary surgical intervention at Yonsei Medical Center from March 1979 to June 1985. There were 155 infants with VSD, 35 Infants with TOF, 5 infants with ECD, 4 infants with TGV, 3 infants with DORV, 3 infants with Pulmonary atresia, 3 infants with ASD and PDA, 2 infants with DOLV, and the remainders were Sinus Valsalva rupture, residual mitral regurgitation after total correction of ECD, PAPVR, Cor triatriatum, Truncus arteriosus, and Tricuspid atresia. The overall surgical mortality was 15.1%. In the acyanotic group, 13 infants died among 168 infants, and mortality was 7.7%. But in the cyanotic group, the mortality rate was very high and 20 infants died among 50 infants raising the mortality to 40.0%. These poor surgical results in the cyanotic or complicated group was due to inaccurate diagnosis, improper surgical methods and inadequate post-operative care which should be improved.

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