Excellent cardiac surgical outcomes in paediatric indigenous patients, but follow-up difficulties.
BACKGROUND
Indigenous Australians' infant mortality is three times that of non-Indigenous Australians. Indigenous children's mortality from rheumatic heart disease is 17-21 times that of non-Indigenous male and female children, respectively. No studies have looked specifically at the operative outcomes of cardiac surgery in paediatric Indigenous patients in Australia and little is known about their follow-up.


OBJECTIVE
To describe operative outcomes of all Indigenous paediatric cardiac surgical patients at a single Australian tertiary hospital and assess their follow-up.


METHODS
Database review of retrospectively collected data of all Indigenous paediatric patients who had cardiac surgery performed at The Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane between 2002 and 2009 (112 patients, 123 operations). Follow-up was assessed by chart review and time to first post-discharge echocardiogram recorded in the hospital database.


RESULTS
Eighty-one percent of operations were congenital heart disease related and 19% of operations were rheumatic heart disease related. Common co-morbidities included respiratory (9.7%) and renal dysfunction (0.8%). Common complications were, bleeding/tamponade 4.1%, cardiac arrest 4.1% and new atrial arrhythmia 2.4%. Mortality was 1% for congenital operations and 4.4% for rheumatic operations. Only 33% of patients had follow-up within eight weeks documented through letters or chart entry. Only 77.5% of patients had a documented follow-up echocardiogram.


CONCLUSIONS
Operative outcome in Indigenous paediatric patients is similar to that found in the global literature. The follow-up for such an excellent surgical outcome has been disappointing. A coordinated action within and between health, health related and social institutions with sufficient resources will assist.
Rohde
S L
SL
Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, The Prince Charles Hospital, Rode Road, Chermside, Brisbane 4032, Australia. simon rohde@health.qld.gov.au.phone
Matebele
M
M
Pohlner
P
P
Radford
D
D
Wall
D
D
Fraser
J F
JF
D000293:Adolescent; D001315:Australia; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012214:Rheumatic Heart Disease / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome