Neurodevelopmental outcomes after infant heart surgery for congenital heart disease: a hospital-based multicentre prospective cohort study from India.

BACKGROUND

Neurodevelopmental disability is a common long-term concern following surgery for congenital heart disease (CHD). Little information is available from low-resource environments where the majority of children with CHD are born. Several challenges in the CHD care continuum exist in such environments.

METHODS

We followed 1346 infants who were operated for CHD using cardiopulmonary bypass from five paediatric cardiac programmes across India. The neurodevelopmental assessment was done using the Developmental Assessment Scale for Indian Infants (DASII) at 6 months after surgery.

RESULTS

A total of 1145 (94.8%) infants were alive at 6 months and 127 (11.1%) were lost to follow-up. The mean age of participants at baseline was 5.2 (3.6) months. The mean motor developmental quotient (DMoQ) and mental developmental quotient (DMeQ) of the remaining 1018 infants were 81.8 (69.5, 93.0) and 87.7 (77.1, 95.7), respectively. A total of 262 (25.7%) infants had motor developmental delay and 157 (15.4%) had mental developmental delay. Syndromic association, younger age at surgery, duration of mechanical ventilation and head circumference were significantly associated with DMoQ. The DMeQ was associated with syndromes, duration of hospital and intensive care unit stay and socioeconomic status. The preoperative condition did not impact mental and motor development. Motor clusters with maximum delay included body control and locomotion. Mental clusters with maximum delay included reaching and manipulation, social interaction-imitative behaviour and vocabulary comprehension.

CONCLUSIONS

Survivors of infant heart surgery experience significant motor and mental neurodevelopmental delay. This delay is associated with similar factors reported by earlier studies. As more high-risk infants undergo cardiac surgery in low-resource settings, a growing population will require significant societal resources for neurodevelopmental assessment as well as neurodevelopmental rehabilitation. These resources include trained personnel for comprehensive developmental assessment of survivors of CHD surgery, as well as infrastructural requirements for dedicated assessment rooms in centres providing surgical care for CHD patients.