Fontan surgery and pregnancy: long-term outcomes and management

  • Tokuko Shinohara, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Japan
  • Tetsuko Ishii, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Japan
  • Aki Ikeda, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Japan
  • Shuhei Fujita, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Japan
  • Daiji Takeuchi, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Japan
  • Kazuhiro Takahashi, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Japan
  • Yoshiki Mori, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Japan
  • Dr Toshio Nakanishi, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Japan
  • [aim] To obtain the long-term outcomes after pregnancy in the patients with Fontan circulation[objective] Five women aged 25 - 42 years at the time of the study, who had Fontan (APC:3, Bjork:1, TCPC:1) operation in 1976 - 1995 and successful pregnancy in 1997 - 2007 at one institution.[methods] The cardiac history of each patient before/after Fontan operation and pregnancy, with the major events such as heart failure, arrhythmia, symptomatic thrombosis, TCPC conversion was clarified in a style of the chronological table retrospectively utilizing medical record.[results] Follow-up time after pregnancy was 2 - 12 years (m=6). The time between Fontan operation and pregnancy was 13 years at average (7 -16 years). Three in five (60%) had major events in 2-10 years after pregnancy. One had TCPC conversion with a pacemaker implantation (PMI) following significant atrial thrombosis, pulmonary infarction and cerebral vascular event 6 years after pregnancy. Difficult atrial brady-tachyarrhythmia was occurred in one who required EPS/ablation and PMI in 10 years later. The deep vein thrombosis was seen and treated in the same patient. One had atrial flutter with heart failure 2 years after pregnancy, which was 16 years from Fontan operation. Four patients were in NYHA class I, and one in II.[conclusions] The successful pregnancy did not affect apparently the outcomes of Fontan surgery in long term in our institution. The timing of pregnancy in a chronological management of female Fontan patients was important in addition to the essential condition of highly selected good Fontan status.