Congenital heart defects: the patients who die.
OBJECTIVE
To register mortality and causes of death in patients with congenital heart defects (CHDs).


METHODS
Prospective population-based observational study.


RESULTS
553 infants with CHD (1.1% of live born) were observed for 1-22 y (median 10 7/12 y). Sixty-four died (11.6%), of whom 32 (50%) died during the first 4 wk, and 51 (79.7%) during the first year of life. Of the total neonatal deaths in the population (3 per 1000), CHDs occurred in 21.5%. Mortality for children with CHDs was not significantly different between the cohorts born in 1982-1991 and 1992-2002, for either neonatal deaths or deaths later on (p>0.05). Out of 170 patients in whom therapeutic procedures (surgery, catheter interventions) were undertaken, 34 (20%) died. Nine cases (1.6%) died with unrecognized CHDs; seven of these on the first day of life with severe extracardiac malformations. In 50 (78.1%) cases, death was judged to be caused directly or indirectly from the CHD, and in 14 (21.9%) from extracardiac malformations or other conditions.


CONCLUSIONS
CHDs occur in a substantial number of neonatal deaths. Most deaths are caused by cardiac insufficiency. The mortality rate remained unchanged.
Meberg
Alf
A
Department of Paediatrics, Vestfold Hospital Tønsberg, Tønsberg, Norway. alf.meberg@siv.no
Lindberg
Harald
H
Thaulow
Erik
E
D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods / Q000401:mortality; D002423:Cause of Death; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D011336:Probability; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017678:Sex Distribution; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016019:Survival Analysis