[Fallot's tetralogy with severe symptomatology during the first year of life (author's transl)]

Seventeen cases of Fallot's Tetralogy with severe symptomatology during the first year of life are reviewed. In all of them, a cardiac catheterization and angiocardiography were performed. In 2 cases the pulmonary outflow tract was atretic. In general, the clinical, radiologic, electrocardiographic and hemodynamic findings were similar to those previously reported, although in 3 patients of the present series atypical electrocardiographic findings were found. Pronounced narrowing and horizontal orientation of the infundibular chamber, and accentuated hypoplasia of the pulmonary artery branches and of the left heart cavities and were all unfavourable findings for total correction frequently found in the present material. Minimal or non-existent aortic dextroposition was observed in association with cases of Fallot's Tetralogy with extreme severity. Surgery was indicated as an emergency measure in the majority of the cases. Palliatives procedures were performed in 10 patients, and corrective surgery in one. Surgical results agree with the extreme severity that this lesion has, when it gives rise to important symptomatology so early in the life.