[Epidemiology and outcome of Congolese children who had surgery for heart defects].

AIMS: to determine the principal heart defects for which children underwent surgery and to determine the survival rate.

PATIENT AND

METHODS

this retrospective cohort study involves Congolese babies treated surgically from September 1989 to September 2010 in France for congenital heart defects (through "Mécénat chirurgie cardiaque" and "Chaîne de l'espoir"). It includes only 110 of the 182 recorded patients during the study period.

RESULTS

The sex ratio for the 110 subjects included in the analysis was 1. Their mean age at surgery was 77.4 ± 57.6 months old (range: 8 to 204 months). The main congenital heart defects for which surgery was performed were ventricular septal defect (21.9%), tetralogy of Fallot either isolated (22.8%) or associated with patent foramen ovale (1.8%) or coronary anomalies (1.8%), atrial septal defect associated with other malformations (8.2%), pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect (5.5%), aortic stenosis (3.7%), atrioventricular septal defect (0.9%), and Laubry-Pezzi syndrome (0.9%). The median length of follow-up was 42.4 ± 35.6 months (range, 3-240 months). Patients' mean age at the study's end was 121.1 ± 86.3 months (range 20-372 months). The 5-year survival rate was 90% and the 20-year survival, 83.3%.

CONCLUSION

Heart surgery for congenital heart defects has improved survival.