[Residual postoperative murmurs in children with congenital heart defects].

Fifty-four children without postoperative complications were admitted to the Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital Rebro, following a complete surgical correction of ventricular septal defect (VSD), atrial septal defect - secundum type (ASD II) and patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) in the period from June, 1989, to February, 1991. Twenty-two patients were treated surgically for VSD, 17 for ASD II and 15 for PDA. There were 23 male and 31 female children. In the early postoperative period, 57% of all the examinees had a murmur with the innocent or functional characteristics. The murmur was significantly more frequent among children with VSD than among children of other groups (ASD II, PDA). Sex, age and hematocrit did not influence this difference. There were 8 anemic children (3 with operated VSD, 4 with ASD II, and 1 with PDA). From this, it may be concluded that anemia also did not cause this difference. However, anemic children represented 50% of the examinees with a murmur among the operated for ASD II and 33% among those treated surgically for PDA. When these anemic children were eliminated, the others operated on for ASD II and PDA probably had the innocent murmurs, since the proportion of examinees with a murmur fits into the incidence of innocent murmurs in the population. The children operated for VSD have had a greater proportion of examinees with a murmur, and most likely, some of these murmurs do not belong to a group of innocent or functional murmurs. Their cause is unknown, as yet (probably, small organic lesion).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)