Cardiac arrhythmias after surgical correction of total anomalous pulmonary venous connection: Late follow-up

Summary

Sixteen patients (10 males and six females) aged 7 months to 20 years, who had undergone surgical repair in the first year of life for total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC), underwent assessment of cardiac rhythm by 24-h electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring, nine of them also had maximal exercise treadmill tests, 3 months to 19.5 years after surgical repair. No patient had symptoms of an arrhythmia and the resting ECG was normal in all except one who had occasional single supraventricular ectopic beats. But on 24-h ECG monitoring significant arrhythmias were recorded in six of the 16 patients, including supraventricular tachycardia (three patients), bradyarrhythmia (two patients), sick sinus syndrome (two patients), and multiform supraventricular and ventricular ectopic beats (two patients). Five of these six patients were assessed more than 6 years after surgery. An inappropriate chronotropic response was seen on maximal exercise treadmill testing in four patients; three of them had arrhythmias previously recorded by 24-h ECG monitoring.

Our observations show that significant arrhythmias may occur in asymptomatic patients long after TAPVC correction, and we therefore recommend long-term follow-up of these patients, even if they are asymptomatic.