Tetralogy of Fallot
Tetralogy of Fallot (te-TRAL-uh-gee of fal-LOH) is a group of four heart defects present at birth. You can say that this is the mother of all congenital heart defects. It includes Ventricular Septal Defect, a hole in the wall of the two sides of the heart, Pulmonary Valve Stenosis, narrowing of the entrance of the pulmonary vessels, Overriding Aorta, the misplacement of the aorta, and Right Ventricular Hypertrophy, the heart muscle on the right side being too large.
Today the treatment for the tetralogy, is open-heart surgery. The pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon will close up the hole (the ventricular septal defect) in the heart and widen the pulmonary stenosis. In the past, a temporary surgery was done during infancy to improve blood flow in the heart, and the complete repair was done in childhood. Now most babies with tetralogy of Fallot have the complete repair done in infancy.
Talk about every possible thing going wrong. But luckily, there is a fix, which is the reason we are all working so hard. Just thinking about my future contributions drive me to study for this physics midterm.
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