emedicine.com,2004). It is possible that a small number of infants that are diagnosed with TOF may also have other ventricular septal defects or an abnormality in the way that the coronary arteries branch. Some also have a complete obstruction from the right ventricle, getting no flow from there at all. Usually, the flow of blood to the lungs is quite limited by the condition, as well. When the flow of blood to the lungs is found to be restricted, the combination of having an overriding aorta and the ventricular septal defect allows blood that is poor in oxygen to return to the right atrium and right ventricle, where it is then pumped out to the rest of the body, instead of the oxygen-rich blood that the body needs and should be receiving. This shunting can cause babies to look very blue and this occurs because the blood that is low on oxygen has a darker color, which can make the lips and skin appear to have a bluish cast to them. How serious this bluing, or cyanosis, is depends on the severity of the narrowing of both the right ventricular outflow tract and the pulmonary valve. The...

Treatment first requires determining whether the baby is getting enough oxygen, because this is critical to life and growth. Usually, infants must have surgery soon after birth, but those that have only mild cyanosis can often go home after only a few weeks. When children reach six months of age, the surgical correction usually takes place, and this correction is required, as the problem will not go away on its own, nor will it get better as the child grows (www.cincinnatichildrens.org, n.d.).
Works Cited www.cincinnatichildrens.org.(n.d.)Cardiac Anomalies/Congenital Heart Defects. Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF). Retrieved 8 February 2005 at http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/health/heart-encyclopedia/anomalies/tof.htm.

A www.emedicine.com.(2004). Tetralogy of Fallot. Retrieved 8 February 2005 at http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic575.htm.