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.