Recent advances in surgery of ongenital heart disease.

In the cyanotic group palliative procedures for transposition of the great arteries are frequently life-saving in infancy, and the definitive operations such as the atrial baffle, and the Rastelli procedure for those with ventricular septal defect and pulmonic stenosis, are now firmly established. In tetralogy of Fallot shunting procedures continue to be employed in infancy and early childhood, and the complete repair is usually done after the age of five. Corrective operations for total anomalous venous return may have to be staged, and the results are more satisfactory in older children. The various forms of endocardial cushion defects can usually be recognized accurately preoperatively, and where the normal anatomical relationships can be restored, excellent results obtained. Brilliant operative success can now be had in some forms of truncus arteriosus and double outlet right ventricle. It is quite common to find congenital heart disease in adults, frequently after many years of having been treated as rheumatic heart disease. The operative risk in this group is less than 10 percent, and in most instances such patients are restored to their normal physiological age after operation.