Objective
Data supporting the use of perioperative steroids during cardiac surgery are conflicting and most pediatric studies have been limited by small sample sizes and/or diverse cardiac diagnoses. The objective of this study was to determine if intraoperative steroid administration improved outcomes following the Norwood procedure.
Design
A retrospective analysis was performed on the 549 neonates who underwent a Norwood procedure in the publicly available datasets from the Pediatric Heart Network’s Single Ventricle Reconstruction (SVR) trial. Groups were compared to determine if outcomes differed between intraoperative steroid recipients (n=498, 91%) and non-recipients (n=51, 9%).
Results
Baseline characteristics and intraoperative variables were similar between groups with the exception of a shorter duration of cross clamp and cardiopulmonary bypass time in the group that received steroids. Subjects who did not receive intraoperative steroids had improved hospital survival (94% vs 83%, p=0.03), but longer intensive care unit stays (16 days (IQR 12–33) vs 14 days (IQR 9–28), p=0.04) and hospital stays (29 days (IQR 21–50) vs 23 days (IQR 15–40, p=0.01) than steroid recipients. In multivariate analysis lengths of stay associations were no longer significant but hospital survival trended towards favoring the non-steroids group with an odds ratio of 3.52 (95% confidence interval 0.98–12.64, p=0.054).
Conclusions
In the large multi-centered SVR trial there was widespread use of intraoperative steroids. Intraoperative steroid administration was not associated with an improvement in outcomes and may be associated with a reduction in hospital survival in neonates undergoing the Norwood procedure. This study highlights the need for a randomized control trial.