Recent Results with the Modified Fontan Operation

From Jan 1989 to December 1991, 61 patients had modified Fontan procedures for a variety of lesions, including tricuspid atresia (18), mitral atresia (3), double inlet ventricle (14), isomeric hearts (4) and others (22). The hospital mortality was 1.6% (70% CL.0.2-5.3%). There were 2 late deaths. The median age at operation was 3.7 years (mean 5.6, range 1.5 to 20.3 years). There were two late failures at 2 months and 30 months after the operation, requiring take down of the Fontan in one and heart transplantation in the other. The 89% of the patients followed up are in NYHA class I or II at a mean follow up of 21.5 months (range 3-35 months). This suggests that the modified Fontan operation performed with the current patient selection criteria can be performed with a low mortality and that the early results are encouraging in the majority of the patients.