Estimating Surgical Risk in Younger and Older Children With Congenital Heart Disease.

BACKGROUND

As management of congenital heart disease (CHD) improves, children with CHD increasingly present for noncardiac surgery. Prior studies report conflicting results on the association between CHD and adverse outcomes in noncardiac surgery. Studies reporting no such association predominantly analyze older children and adolescents. We evaluated whether the association between CHD and adverse surgical outcomes was attenuated by increased age.

METHODS

Patients aged 0-17 y, undergoing elective noncardiac surgery, were identified in the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program-Pediatric registry. CHD status was classified as none, minor, major, or severe. Multivariable logistic regression evaluated the association of CHD status with the occurrence of any postoperative complication for groups defined by quintiles of patient age (<1, 1-3, 4-8, 9-13, and 14-17 y). Specific complications included cardiac arrest, reintubation, infection, renal failure, neurological complication, thromboembolic complication, reoperation, 30-d unplanned revisit, 30-d prolonged hospital stay, and mortality.

RESULTS

The analysis included 131,164 children, of whom 6420 had minor CHD, 3825 had major CHD, and 963 had severe CHD. The overall rate of complications was 9%. In multivariable analysis, children <1 y old had greater risk of postoperative complications if they had minor (odds ratio [OR] = 1.97; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.70, 2.20; P < 0.001), major (OR = 2.58; 95% CI: 2.28, 2.91; P < 0.001), or severe CHD (OR = 4.37; 95% CI: 3.45, 5.54; P < 0.001). In older age groups, however, the presence of CHD was not independently associated with postoperative complications.

CONCLUSIONS

In pediatric noncardiac surgery, an independent association of CHD with postoperative complications was only evident among children <1 y old.