The authors of “Outcomes of truncus arteriosus repair and predictors of mortality” carried out a retrospective analysis of more than 3000 infants with truncus arteriosus using the National Inpatient Sample dataset of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project database. Logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with in-hospital mortality. The authors also identified a seemingly protective effect of 22q11.2 deletion. But do these findings offer a complete understanding of surgical risk factors for patients with truncus arteriosus?