Background: Total anomalous pulmonary venous return is a relatively rare disease which has a very high mortality(80% within a year) if not properly corrected surgically. Material and Method: Twenty-six infants with total anomalous pulmonary venous return underwent repair between May, 1991 and February, 1996. Result: There were 19 boys and 7 girls. The mean age at operation was 2.6 months(range: 5 day to 11 month) and the mean body weight was 4.3kg(range:2.8 to 6.7 kg). Preoperative stabilization included ventilator for 5 patients and inotropic support for 6 patients. There were 6 hospital mortalities. Significant risk factors of operative mortality were preoperative ventilator care(p<0.03) and preoperative inotropic support(p<0.05). Age, body weight at operation, pulmonary venous obstruction, high pulmonary arterial pressure, spurasystemic right ventricular pressure or emergency operation did not affected the operative outcome. Postperative pulmonary venous obstruction occurred in three patients 2 or 3 months later, among them one patient was reoperated. The actuarial survival was 76% at 40 months. Conclusion: Although early mortality was high, repair of total anomalous pulmonary venous return should be attempted in early life, but the patients receiving ventilator care or inotropic support need special attention.