Abstract:
Objective: To analyze transcatheter palliative balloon angioplasty's safety, efficacy, and clinical outcomes by a single
operator in symptomatic Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) patients in tertiary care.
Study Design and Setting: This is a case series study. It was carried out at the Pediatric Cardiology Department PNS
SHIFA Karachi and the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC/NIHD) Rawalpindi, Pakistan, from November 2022
to May 2024.
Methodology: This study selected patients from the pediatric database using non-probability consecutive sampling. A
sample size of n=30 was taken. Symptomatic infants of TOF requiring palliation for (right ventricular outflow tract) RVOT
obstruction were included and infants with predominant valvular narrowing and those not fulfilling the criteria of TOF
were excluded. Data was entered and analyzed by using SPSS version-24:00. In descriptive statistics, Mean ± SD was
calculated for continuous variables while frequency (%) for categorical variables. The Chi-square test was used to find
out the association between categorical variables, p-value of <0.05 was taken as statistically significant.
Results: Out of 30 patients, 11(37%) were males and females were 19(63%). The median age was 24 months. Immediate
improvement in saturation was noted in all patients and transient arrhythmias 5(16%) was the most encountered complication.
Conclusion: Transcatheter palliative balloon angioplasty is becoming the first line of treatment for patients with Tetralogy
of Fallot due to its physiologic improvement in blood flow to the lungs and reciprocal increase in saturation. It is safe and
requires much less hospital stay in a professionally sound environment.
