Korean J Pediatr.  2005 Jul;48(7):737-744.

Airway Compression or Airway Anomaly Causing Respiratory Symptoms in Infants and Children with Cardiovascular Diseases

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Pediatrics, Ulsan University Hospital, Ulsan, Korea.
  • 2Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Ulsan University, Seoul, Korea. sjhong@amc.seoul.kr
  • 3Department of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, Asan Medical Center, College of Medicine, Ulsan University, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

PURPOSE
Infants and children with cardiovascular diseases often present with respiratory symptoms. However, missed or delayed evaluation for potential airway problem may complicate overall prognosis. The aim of this study is to determine the clinical characteristics of these patients and explore the cause of airway problem. METHODS: We reviewed the medical records of 64 patients (M: F=33: 31, mean age: 6.3+/-7.5 months) whose airway problems were proven by computed tomography or bronchoscopy in perioperative periods at the Asan Medical Center from January 1997 to June 2004. Patients were divided into two groups based on the duration of ventilator care: < or =7 days (group 1: 23 cases, M: F=10: 13) and > 7 days (group 2: 41 cases, M: F=23: 18). RESULTS: The patients in group 2 significantly developed more post-operative respiratory symptoms than group 1 (P< 0.001) and had more airway problems including extrinsic obstruction, intrinsic anomaly, and combined problem than group 1 although not significantly different (P=0.082). Among underlying diseases, the most common diseases were vascular anomaly (26.2 percent) and aortic arch anomaly (26.2 percent) in group 1 and pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect (22.4 percent) in group 2. The most frequent respiratory symptoms were recurrent wheezing pre-operatively and failure of ventilator weaning post-operatively. The major types of airway anomaly were tracheomalacia and tracheal stenosis (in each case 18.2 percent). Nineteen patients with persistent airway problems underwent aortopexy or other vascular correction. Of the 19 patients, 13 (68.4 percent) were improved, but 2 failed in weaning ventilator and 4 died of non-airway problems. CONCLUSION: Early evaluation and treatment for potential airway problems may affect natural or surgical prognosis in patients with cardiovascular diseases presenting with respiratory symptoms.

Keyword

Cardiovascular diseases; Airway problem; Computed tomography; Bronchoscopy; Aortopexy

MeSH Terms

Aorta, Thoracic
Bronchoscopy
Cardiovascular Diseases*
Child*
Chungcheongnam-do
Heart Septal Defects, Ventricular
Humans
Infant*
Medical Records
Perioperative Period
Prognosis
Pulmonary Atresia
Respiratory Sounds
Tracheal Stenosis
Tracheomalacia
Ventilator Weaning
Ventilators, Mechanical
Weaning
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