Progress in Late Results Among Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Patients

Abstract

Background-Surgical treatment of congenital cardiac defects in Finland started >60 years ago. We analyzed the survival of all the pediatric cardiac surgery patients operated on before 2010.

Modes of Death in a Pediatric Cardiac ICU*

“…As a result of improved postoperative survival for complex CHD (1,2), growing numbers of children are now living with serious cardiac conditions in the pediatric cardiac ICU (CICU). Conducting thorough studies of circumstances surrounding end-of-life care in the CICU remains, to some extent, difficult.…”

The vital role the ductus arteriosus plays in the fetal diagnosis of congenital heart disease: Evaluation by fetal echocardiography in combination with an innovative cardiovascular cast technology

“…Prenatal detection can improve the neonatal outcome by virtue of earlier surgical intervention [22,23] and less morbidity and mortality [24]. Furthermore, serial fetal echocardiograms are useful to evaluate evolving lesions thus making better the therapeutic outcomes [25].…”

Pediatric Cardiac Surgery

“…Raissadati and associates 7 from Helsinki report data pertaining to all patients who underwent pediatric heart surgery during childhood in Finland from 1953 to 2009, and Erikssen and associates 8 from Oslo report data pertaining to nearly all patients who underwent heart surgery during childhood in Norway from 1971 to 2011 (including all patients from 2003-2011). What is most remarkable about these 2 reports is that both groups of investigators were able to use national population registries to obtain recent life status data for >98% of patients.…”