Postoperative complications in pediatric cardiac surgery patients done in a tertiary hospital

Abstract

Introduction Postoperative complications can involve several organs and have a major effect on in-hospital stay length and quality of life of the children after discharge from the hospital. Although the complications are strictly related to the surgical procedure, postoperative pulmonary complications represent an important and probably underestimated cause of morbidity and mortality in postoperative pediatric heart surgery. Aim The aim of this study was to evaluate the relation between complication and the overall outcome. Patients and methods This retrospective descriptive study included 100 children (ages from 0 to 18 years old, excluding preterm babies) who underwent open heart surgery in Cardiothoracic Surgery Department of Assiut University in a 1-year period. The preoperative and intraoperative parameters included technique of operation, cardiopulmonary bypass time, and aortic cross-clamp time. The postoperative parameters included occurrence of postoperative complications, such as arrhythmias, heart failure, pulmonary congestion with chest infection, wound infection, and bleeding, and hospital stay of the patients. Results The occurrence of complications after congenital heart surgeries using cardiopulmonary bypass has significant relation with the cardiopulmonary bypass time; therefore, the longer the cardiopulmonary bypass time, the more the probability of cardiac and extracardiac complications. This study shows the same result as studies in adult surgery, demonstrating that complications after heart surgery significantly are associated with increased hospital stay time. Conclusion Surgery is the optimal and the final treatment for congenital heart diseases; nearly a quarter of the patients who undergo congenital heart surgery experience postoperative complications, complex congenital heart diseases with different degrees of heart failure, or respiratory failure, and carry more risk for complications. So close monitoring and timely intervention and treatment are very critical to avoid occurrence of multiple complications as reported in our study.