Tetralogy of Fallot

The considerable body of clinical and physiologic data in patients with the tetralogy of Fallot that has been accumulated over the past 15 years now indicates that the original concept of the lesion as a single, fairly narrowly limited entity is no longer valid. The tetralogy can now be demonstrated to occupy a broad spectrum in the field of congenital cardiac anomalies, representing widely varying forms. While the entity has been termed a tetralogy, only 2 features, namely the pulmonary stenosis and the ventricular septal defect, are essential in the determination of the clinical and physiologic pattern that patients with this defect portray.