Internal medicine journal
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Internal medicine journal · Feb 2014
Multicenter StudyThe Australia and New Zealand Fontan Registry: description and initial results from the first population-based Fontan registry.
The Fontan procedure is the final in a series of staged palliations for single-ventricle congenital heart disease, which encompasses rare and heterogeneous cardiac lesions. It represents an unusual and novel physiological state characterised by absence of a subpulmonary ventricle. ⋯ The population surviving after the Fontan procedure has been growing in recent decades, especially since survival with hypoplastic left heart syndrome has improved. The Australia and New Zealand Fontan Registry provides population-based data, and only large databases like this will give opportunities for understanding the population and performing prospective trials.