Methods: Study population included 40 TOF patients aged under one year who underwent PPBV between July 2005 and November 2011. The indications for PPBV were defined as a pulse oxymetric oxygen saturation of <70% or echocardiographic McGoon index <1.7.

Results: The mean oxygen saturation increased from 66.1% to 83.5% following the procedure, which was statistically significant (p<0.0001). After PPBV, 13 patients had total repair directly without any other procedure. Five patients underwent a Blalock- Taussig (BT) shunt operation, while one had a Brock operation. During follow-up, 19 patients had a second cardiac catheterization. Patients who had a second cardiac catheterization had a statistically significant difference in terms of the McGoon index, the pulmonary annulus diameters and Z-scores, the right pulmonary artery diameters and Z-scores and the left pulmonary artery diameters and Z-scores. After the second cardiac catheterization, 17 more patients underwent total repair surgery. A total of 30 patients were able to undergo total repair surgery without any additional palliative method (transcatheter or surgical). The median time to delayed total repair was 12.5 months (range: 2-25 months). No procedure-related mortality was observed.

Conclusion: The PPBV is an effective, beneficial and safe procedure in TOF patients eliminating hypoxia, maintaining pulmonary vascular bed and delaying the surgery time for total repair.