Congenital Heart Diseases Followed in Our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: Frequency, Risk Factors and Prognosis

Introduction: To evaluate babies diagnosed as congenital heart disease in terms of frequency, risk factors and prognosis and to determine the issues to be covered to reduce the mortality in these patients in the scope of the literature. Materials and Methods: Ninety-nine patients diagnosed as congenital heart disease were enrolled among 1.175 patients who were admitted to neonatal intensive care unit in Uludag University Hospital between January 2008 and January 2013. Results: Fifty-four patients (54.5%) of 99 cases included in the study were male and 45 (45.5%) cases were female. Of cases, 82.9% were term and mean birth weight was 3.142 +/- 592 gr. Most common diagnosis was transposition of great arteries seen in 14 cases (14.1%), followed by complete atrioventricular septal defect and aortic hypoplasia, 11 cases for each. Mortality rate was 35.3% (35 of 99 patients) and mean time of death was 22 days. Antenatal diagnosis rate was 55.6% (55 of 99 patients). Conclusions: It appears to be two major issues to address in order to reduce the mortality in congenital heart defects. Firstly, rate of proper follow-up in pregnancies and prenatal diagnosis must be increased. Secondly, these patients must be operated in the exact appropriate time by exclusive congenital heart surgeons, and subsequently managed by experienced post-operative care staff. Therefore, establishment of regional cardiac surgery/intensive care units and referral of all congenital heart defects to these centers would be ideal. In order to reduce the mortality and morbidity of congenital heart defects, these issues must be covered by the Ministry of Health and necessary initiatives must be established as urgently as possible.