Excuse me, i have undergone surgery to correct tetralogy of fallot yet i still dont know fully what it is. If anyone could give me just a brief overview of what exactly it is, it would be greatly appreciated.


thank you^^

Impervious,

My goodness, how old are you. The surgery is usually done on newborns. T of F is a complicated malformation of several sections of the heart and it's major vessels. It's hard to paraphrase but her's a good explanation from the American Heart Association:
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=11071

Excuse me, i have undergone surgery to correct tetralogy of fallot yet i still dont know fully what it is. If anyone could give me just a brief overview of what exactly it is, it would be greatly appreciated.


thank you^^

My daughter was born with TOF. Basically, a child who is born with TOF has four defects:

1. A narrow Pulmonary Artery
2. A VSD, or "hole" between the heart chambers
3. A displaced Aorta
4. Hypertrophy, or a thickening of the heart wall

It is a defect where your pulmonary artery is too narrow to transport the blood the body needs to keep it oxygenated. You also have a hole between the chambers of your heart(VSD: Ventral Septal Defect) that allows the unoxygenated blood to mix with the oxygenated blood, therefore your body is not getting sufficent oxygen, which in turn, will cause (or can cause) you to turn blue and pass out due to lack of oxygen. You also have one side of your heart that may grow larger (Hypertrophy) because it is working harder to try and keep your body's oxygen levels normal. The heart is a muscle, and we all know if you work a muscle hard, it will grow larger.

This can and is all repaired surgically. I don't want to say it is a simple surgery, but is is fairly common. There was a time when babies born with this defect were left to die because surgeons just did not kow much about it, but today, it is one of the most common and correctable heart defects in babies.

I hope this helps you.