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J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2007;134:1353-1354
© 2007 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery

Brief Communication

The Fontan procedure in Australia: A population-based study

^a Department of Cardiac Surgery and Intensive Care Unit, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
^b Department of Pediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Received for publication June 7, 2007; accepted for publication June 21, 2007.

^_* Address for reprints: Yves d’Udekem, MD, PhD, Department of Cardiac Surgery, Royal Children’s Hospital, Flemington Rd, Parkville, Melbourne 3052, Victoria, Australia. (Email: yves.dudekem@rch.org.au).

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

Since its first description in 1971, the Fontan procedure has become the final stage of palliation for children not considered candidates for a two-ventricle repair.¹ The long-term future of these patients is uncertain, but it is clear that a large number of them will experience failure of their "Fontan circulation." The proportion of these patients who will eventually require heart transplantation is still unknown and may be altered by the use of emerging medical therapies and by surgical options such as the Fontan conversion.² The burden of this new patient population on health systems is difficult to evaluate, but it is reasonable to expect that most of them will require expensive therapies after their third decade with a Fontan circulation. Because the Fontan procedure is offered to such a heterogenous group of patients, it is difficult to evaluate the size of this patient population. The perioperative mortality of this procedure is now minimal, . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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