Procedure-Specific Center Volume and Mortality After Infantile Congenital Heart Surgery.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Regionalization of congenital heart surgery (CHS) has been proposed to improve postsurgical outcomes by increasing experience in the care of high-risk patients. We sought to determine whether procedure-specific center volume was associated with mortality after infantile CHS up to 3 years post-procedure.

METHODS:

We analyzed data from 12,263 infants in the Pediatric Cardiac Care Consortium undergoing CHS between 1982 and 2003 at 46 centers within the United States. We used logistic regression to assess the association between procedure-specific center volume and mortality from discharge to 3 years post-procedure, accounting for clustering at the center level and adjusting for patient age and weight at surgery, chromosomal abnormality, and surgical era.

RESULTS:

We found decreased odds for in-hospital mortality for Norwood procedures (odds ratio [OR] 0.955, 95% CI 0.935-0.976), arterial switch operations (OR 0.924, 95% CI 0.889-0.961), tetralogy of Fallot repairs (OR 0.975, 95% CI 0.956-0.995), Glenn shunts (OR 0.971, 95% CI 0.943-1.000), and ventricular septal defect closures (OR 0.974, 95% CI 0.964-0.985). The association persisted up to 3 years post-surgery for Norwood procedures (OR 0.971, 95% CI 0.955-0.988), arterial switches (OR 0.929, 95% CI 0.890-0.970), and ventricular septal defect closures (OR 0.986, 95% CI 0.977-0.995); however, after excluding deaths that occurred within the first 90 days of following surgery, we observed no association between center volume and mortality for any of the procedures studied.

CONCLUSIONS:

These findings suggest that procedure-specific center volume is inversely associated with early postoperative mortality for infantile CHS across the complexity spectrum but has no measurable effect on later mortality.

• Authors: Rachel Zmora, Logan Spector, John Bass, Amanda Thomas, Jessica Knight, Kamakshi Lakshminarayan, James St Louis, Lazaros Kochilas
• Journal: The Annals of thoracic surgery (Ann Thorac Surg) Vol. 116 Issue 3 Pg. 525-531 (09 2023) ISSN: 1552-6259 [Electronic] Netherlands
• PMID: 37100164 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2023 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Topics

• Infant
• Child
• Humans
• United States (epidemiology)
• Heart Defects, Congenital
• Cardiac Surgical Procedures
• Heart Septal Defects, Ventricular (complications)
• Norwood Procedures
• Hospital Mortality
• Treatment Outcome