Clinical outcome of 193 extracardiac Fontan patients: the first 15 years.

Objectives: We sought to evaluate the mid-term outcome of hospital survivors with extracardiac Fontan circulation.

Background: Few data exist about the mid-term and long-term results of the extracardiac Fontan operation.

Methods: From November 1988 to November 2003, 221 patients underwent an extracardiac Fontan procedure as primary (9 patients) or secondary (212 patients) palliation, at a mean age of 72.

The influence of different surgical procedures on hypertension after repair of coarctation.

We measured resting and exercise haemodynamics, as well as 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure, so as to study the influence on development of hypertension in children after repair of coarctation by either construction of a subclavian flap or end-to-end anastamosis. The patients in both groups were studied a mean time of 13 years after surgery. Thus, we divided 43 children who had undergone surgical repair of coarctation, and who were not on antihypertensive therapy, into a group of 22 patients who had undergone subclavian flap repair, with a mean age of 14 plus or minus 2.