tetralogy of Fallot
- Also called:
- Fallot tetrad
- Key People:
- Helen Brooke Taussig
- Alfred Blalock
tetralogy of Fallot, combination of congenital heart defects characterized by hypoxic spells (which include difficulty in breathing and alterations in consciousness), a change in the shape of the fingertips (digital clubbing), heart murmur, and cyanosis, a bluish discoloration of the skin that gives rise to “blue baby” syndrome.
Named for French physician Étienne-Louis-Arthur Fallot, who first described it in the late 19th century, tetralogy of Fallot is the result of a combination of a defect in the ventricular septum (the partition that separates the lower chambers of the heart), pulmonary stenosis (narrowing of the opening to the pulmonary artery), dilation and displacement of the aorta to override the ventricular septum, and right ventricular hypertrophy (thickening of the muscle of the right ventricle). This condition causes the deoxygenated venous blood to be shunted from the right to the left side of the heart into arterial circulation.
Total correction of the condition is possible with surgical repair of the septal defect, removal of the obstruction to the right ventricular outflow, and opening of the right ventricle.
