The Early Results of Open Heart Surgery in Neonates

Oh, Tak Hyuck; Kim, Kyu Tae; Kim, Gun Jik; Lee, Jong Tae; Cho, Joon Yong

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Remarkable progress has recently been made in achieving successful early repair of congenital heart disease with using cardiopulmonary bypass in the neonatal period. The aim of this study is to evaluate our short-term outcomes for performing neonatal cardiac surgery under extracorporeal circulation. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Fifty five neonates underwent open heart surgery from February 2002 to December 2007. The mean ages and body weight was 13.5 days and 3.2 kg, respectively. The diagnoses of the patients were transposition of the great arteries (14), total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (7), large ventricular septal defect (VSD) (7), coarctation of the aorta with VSD (6), interrupted aortic arch (5) and others (16). RESULT: Six patients had difficulties being weaned from extracorporeal circulation. Four patients left the operating room with an open sternum. Low cardiac output syndrome and acute renal insufficiency were observed in 3 patients each, respectively. Post-operative complications were observed in 27 patients (49.1%). The postoperative mortality was 12.7% (7 patients); 5 patients experienced early hospital death and 2 experienced late death (2).
CONCLUSION
In our hospital, early surgical repair with extracorporeal circulation in neonates was feasible with tolerable mortality. Further follow-up is required to establish the long-term survival and complications.