Results
The Mean age, weight and conduit size were 56.8 months (range 2-196
months), 12.3 kg (range 3-44 Kg) and 18.4 mm (range 12-24 mm)
respectively. The male to female ratio was 25:16. The age and weight of
children in PH group was significantly lower than those in NPH group.
There were two early death. A child with truncus arteriosus in PH group
died due to intractable pulmonary hypertensive crisis. Another child
with Tetralogy of Fallot and anomalous coronary artery crossing the RVOT
in NPH group died due to right ventricular dysfunction and sepsis. The
conduit was functioning well in all discharged patients. Five patients
(12.2%) had mild regurgitation, eight patients (19.5%) had trivial
regurgitation and 28 patients (68%) had no regurgitation at discharge.
There was one late unrelated death due to pneumonitis and three patients
were lost to follow-up. The remaining thirty-five patients were
evaluated at a mean follow-up duration of 30 months (range 8-72 months).
Four of these patients were followed up telephonically. They were said
to be asymptomatic, but could not be evaluated in the hospital due to
socio-economic constraints. Of the thirty-one patients who underwent
echocardiogram twenty-nine patients had nil to mild regurgitation and
only two patients had moderate regurgitation. The mean gradient at last
follow up was 30.7 mmHg (range 6-120 mmHg), Five of the patients had
RVOT gradients of more than 60 mmHg. One patient had gradient in the
immediate postoperative period due to technical failure and the conduit
was revised prior to discharge. The remaining four patients developed
gradients at a mean follow-up of 60 months. Two of these have under gone
conduit revision and the other two are awaiting re-operation. There was
no significant difference between the degree of regurgitation in the
pulmonary hypertensive and non-hypertensive group at last follow up
(Tabel 4)