Abstract
Tetralogy of Fallot is the most common cyanotic congenital heart defect
and accounts for about 5% of all congenital cardiopathies. The
definitive treatment modality for tetralogy of Fallot is reparative
surgery, which is recommended to be performed by the time of diagnosis.
Without surgical repair, most patients would die during their childhood.
In the past, survival data indicated that 66% of persons with tetralogy
of Fallot not surgically treated lived until the age of 1, 49% lived
until the age of 3, and 24% lived until the age of 10. We present a
patient with uncorrected tetralogy of Fallot who lived up to 72 years of
age. The patient with a history of 4 live births presented to the
emergency department with dyspnea, and in our echocardiography, we found
that the patient with uncorrected tetralogy of Fallot had pericardial
tamponade. When we review the current literature, she is the oldest
uncorrected patient with tetralogy of Fallot in our country and the
female patient with the highest number of live births among patients
with uncorrected Tetralogy of Fallot in the world.