Postsurgical left anterior hemiblock and right bundle-branch block.

Combined left anterior hemiblock and right bundle-branch block after surgical closure of ventricular septal defects and correction of tetralogy of Fallot is evaluated in 240 patients. It wasfound that 7 of IO9 patients or 6-4 per cent with ventricular septal defect and I4 of I3I patients or IO-7 per cent with tetralogy of Fallot developed this combination of conduction disturbances as a consequence of intracardiac operations. All patients are alive and completely asymptomatic i to 1O years after operation. No serious side effects have occurred except for transient heart block in the immediate postoperative period in 2 patients. The immediate prognosis is goodfor combined left anterior hemiblock and right bundle-branch block in children after surgical correction of these two types of congenital cardiac defects. The ultimate outlook, however, can be determined only after many more years of observation.