T and B lymphocyte function of patients with infectious complications after surgery for congenital heart defects

The parameters of T- and B-lymphocyte system were studied in 65 patients with congenital heart defects aged from 2 to 31 years with infectious complications after operation. The investigation was performed before operation and in the course of the postoperative period. Patients with infectious complications were shown to have more considerable suppression of cell and humoral immunity before operation than those without infectious complications. The parameters concerned were found to be distinctly decreased in the early postoperative period. Two weeks after operation no normalization of the immune parameters were noted.