title: Long-term growth of children with congenital heart disease: a retrospective study.
abstract: This retrospective study evaluates long-term growth of children with congenital heart disease (CHD) and looks for possible relationships between postsurgical catch-up growth and both severity of preoperative growth failure and operation age. Growth data of 123 children with isolated CHD were available. Mean z-scores and 95% confidence intervals for weight, height and weight-for-height were plotted for age-periods as well as for pre- and postoperative periods. Growth of children with a large VSD or a Tetralogy of Fallot was most abnormal and improved but did not normalize after operation. Catch-up growth for length was strongly correlated with severity of the preoperative growth failure (r = 0.92, p < 0.05) but not with operation age (r = 0.20, NS). We conclude that surgical correction results in catch-up growth for most individuals. Catch-up growth is positively correlated with the severity of the initial growth disturbance and not with age at the moment of surgical correction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital of Maastricht, Maastricht University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: F M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Schuurmans
authors.forename: C F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Pulles-Heintzberger
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Gerver
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Kester
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Forget
mesh_terms: D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006128:Growth; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies