Between January 1984 and June 1994, during a 10-year-period, we performed "total correction operation" on 54 patients with tetralogy of Fallot, at the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Ondokuz Mayıs University. The age range was 2-17 (average 6.31) years. Total correction was planned in fifteen patients on the basis of only echocardiography. The others had both echocardiography and angiography. Atrial septal defect was found in 9 patients. Transannular patch in 41 cases, resection of infundibular muscle band in 7 cases and only infundibular patch in 6 cases were technique of choice for enlargement of the pulmonary outflow tract. Average follow-up was 46.1 months. Two patients were reoperated in the late postoperative period because of leak in the patch of ventricular septal defect. Three cases in early, two cases in the late postoperative period were. Total mortality was 9.3%. In this study, we reviewed the criteria that make the basis of total correction in the patients with tetralogy of Fallot.