Profile of congenital heart disease and correlation to risk adjustment for surgery; an echocardiographic study.

Abstract

To determine the pattern and profile of Congenital Heart Diseases (CHD) in paediatric patients (age 1 day to 18 years) presenting to a paediatric tertiary referral centre and its correlation to risk adjustment for surgery for congenital heart disease. Descriptive case series. Paediatric Cardiology Department, Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology/National Institute of Heart Diseases, Rawalpindi (AFIC/NIHD). Over a period of 6 months, 1149 cases underwent 2-D echocardiography. It was a non-probability purposive sampling. This study showed 25% of all referrals had normal hearts. A male preponderance (38%) was observed from 1 year to 5 years age group. Nineteen percent of the cases were categorized as cyanotic CHD with the remaining as acyanotic variety. Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) represented 10%, Ventricular Septal Defects (VSD) 24%, followed by Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) and Atrial Septal Defect (ASD), which comprised 6.6% and 6.5% respectively. VSD was the most common association in patients with more complex CHD (10%) followed by PDA in 3% and ASD in 1.2% of the cases. Most of the cases were category 2 in the RACHS-1 scoring system. VSD and TOF formed the major groups of cases profiled. Most of the cases recommended for surgery for congenital heart disease belonged to the risk category 2 (28.1%) followed by the risk category 1 (12.7%) of the RACHS-1 scoring system.