Characteristics Associated with Poor Long-Term Outcomes in Patients with Fontan Palliation: A Case-Control…

Case-controlPediatric cardiology· Jun 2026

Characteristics Associated with Poor Long-Term Outcomes in Patients with Fontan Palliation: A Case-Control Study.

Anusha Konduri, Sunkyung Yu, Scott Breshears … Kurt R Schumacher

Read paper

Congenital Cardiac SurgeryCase-controlPrognosisQ2IF 1.8

Prolonged postoperative hospital stay strongly linked to death or transplant after Fontan surgery.

Characteristics Associated with Poor Long-Term Outcomes in Patients with Fontan Palliation: A Case-Control Study.

Anusha Konduri … Kurt R Schumacher

Pediatric cardiology · Jun 2026

Background

The Fontan procedure provides long-term palliation for patients with single-ventricle physiology, but long-term outcomes remain limited by progressive Fontan circulatory failure.

Purpose

We aimed to identify peri-Fontan factors associated with mortality or need for advanced cardiac therapies in Fontan patients.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective matched case-control study of patients who underwent Fontan completion between 2000 and 2023 at a single tertiary congenital heart center.

n = 151 controls

Results

longer hospital stays after surgery sharply raise odds of death or transplant

AOR by subgroup · 95% CI

More results

Early identification of patients at risk for adverse outcomes is critical to guide surveillance and management strategies.

A total of 53 cases who experienced death, ventricular assist device implantation, or heart transplantation were matched to 151 controls.

More results

The median age at Fontan failure was 11.5 years (IQR 6.9-16.1), occurring a median of 8.6 years (IQR 3.8-13.8) after Fontan completion.

“

Conclusion

These findings add to the growing body of literature identifying peri-Fontan factors associated with adverse long-term outcomes and support the importance of perioperative hemodynamics and postoperative recovery in long-term Fontan risk assessment.

Characteristics Associated with Poor Long-Term Outcomes in Patients with Fontan Palliation: A Case-Control Study.

Characteristics Associated with Poor Long-Term Outcomes in Patients with Fontan Palliation: A Case-Control Study.

Related papers