The surgical treatment of total anomalous pulmonary venous connection.

Thirty-five patients had complete repair of total anomalous pulmonary venous connection between 1 January 1968 and July 1974. The mean age of the patients was 5.8 months. The hospital mortality rate was 43%; six of seven patients less than one month of age died. There were no deaths in the nine patients over six months of age at the time of operation. Inadequate cardiac performance was responsible for eight of the nine deaths in patients operated on since 1 September 1971. Thirteen percent of the patients who left the operating room alive were reoperated on for bleeding early in the postoperative period. No patient has required tracheostomy since 1 September 1971. Three of the 20 long-term survivors have required reoperation. The late results are good. Ways of improving results in the future are discussed.