Click here to view a larger image. Click here to view a larger image. Tetralogy of Fallot (pronounced te-tral-uh-jee of Fal-oh) is
a birth defect that affects normal blood flow through the heart
. It happens when a baby's heart does not form correctly as the baby grows and develops in the mother's womb during pregnancy.
What is the meaning of Fallot?
Click here to view a larger image. Click here to view a larger image. Tetralogy of Fallot (pronounced te-tral-uh-jee of Fal-oh) is
a birth defect that affects normal blood flow through the heart
. It happens when a baby's heart does not form correctly as the baby grows and develops in the mother's womb during pregnancy.
What is a TOF person?
Tetralogy of Fallot (ToF) is
a complex heart defect
. If you have ToF, you are born with four different heart problems: A hole in the wall between your heart's main pumping chambers (ventricular septal defect or VSD) A valve between your heart and lungs that is too narrow (pulmonary stenosis or PS)
Is Tetralogy of Fallot serious?
Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) is a serious, congenital heart defect,
affecting about two in 10,000 babies
. In TOF, the abnormal connections prevent enough oxygen-poor (blue) blood from flowing to the lungs as it should.
What does trilogy of Fallot mean?
Tetralogy of Fallot is
a combination of four congenital heart defects
. The four defects are a ventricular septal defect (VSD), pulmonary stenosis, a misplaced aorta and a thickened right ventricular wall (right ventricular hypertrophy). They usually result in a lack of oxygen-rich blood reaching the body.
How long can you live with tetralogy of Fallot?
What is the life expectancy of someone with tetralogy of Fallot? It is difficult to predict how long a child with repaired Tetralogy of Fallot is going to live but data suggests that the outcome is generally good
up to 30-40 years after complete repair
.
Can tetralogy of Fallot fix itself?
TOF
is repaired through open-heart surgery soon after birth or later in infancy
. Some infants need more than one heart surgery. Most babies who are treated do very well, but will need regular follow-up visits with a heart specialist.
At what age is TOF diagnosed?
Most children have it before they turn 1-year-old. It's often done around
age 6 months
. A team of heart surgeons will do your child's surgery.
Can TOF be cured?
Most children with tetralogy of Fallot will need surgery to fix the heart problems, and the surgery is usually performed before a baby is 1 year old. Tetralogy of Fallot can cause problems if the heart is not fixed, however, corrective surgery performed in childhood for tetralogy of
Fallot does not cure the condition
.
How does squatting help in tetralogy of Fallot?
Squatting is a compensatory mechanism, of diagnostic significance, and highly typical of infants with tetralogy of Fallot. Squatting
increases peripheral vascular resistance (PVR) and thus decreases the magnitude of the right-to-left shunt across the ventricular septal defect (VSD)
.
What are the complications of tetralogy of Fallot?
- Blood clots (which may be in the brain causing stroke)
- Infection in the lining of the heart and heart valves (bacterial endocarditis)
- Abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias)
- Heart failure.
- Death.
What is the surgery for tetralogy of Fallot?
Surgery for tetralogy of Fallot involves
open-heart surgery to correct the defects (intracardiac repair) or a temporary procedure that uses a shunt
. Most babies and older children have intracardiac repair.
Can tetralogy of Fallot be detected before birth?
Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) is a congenital heart defect that
can be diagnosed either before or after a baby is born
.
Can Tetralogy of Fallot cause heart failure?
Most heart failure seen in patients with TOF (of all ages) is mediated, at least in part, by
pulmonic insufficiency
. Nevertheless, there is a trend toward increased numbers of TOF patients developing biventricular or left-sided heart failure in the absence of significant pulmonic valve dysfunction.
Can Tetralogy of Fallot be misdiagnosed?
While it is
highly unusual for ToF to go undiagnosed until adulthood
, it does happen — typically in cases such as this when there is a perfect balance in childhood between the narrowing of the pulmonic valve and the ventricular septal defect so that cyanosis does not occur.
Does tetralogy of Fallot affect growth?
The four defects caused by TOF results in short of blood in lung to get oxygen, and oxygen-poor blood effects the metabolic in body tissues, finally leads to the
defects of growth and development
.
