Perioperative Management of the Fontan Patient for Cardiac and Noncardiac Surgery.

The Fontan circulation is the single-ventricle approach to surgical palliation of complex congenital heart disease wherein biventricular separation and function cannot be safely achieved. Incremental improvements in this surgical technique, along with improvements in the long-term medical management of these patients, have led to greater survival of these patients and a remarkably steady increase in the number of adults living with this unusual circulation and physiology. This has implications for healthcare providers who now have a greater chance of encountering Fontan patients during the course of their practice.