Improved nutrition delivery and nutrition status in critically ill children with heart disease.

Background: This initiative sought to improve nutrition delivery in critically ill children with heart disease admitted to the cardiac ICU (CICU) and neonates undergoing stage 1 palliation (S1P) for single-ventricle physiology through interdisciplinary team interventions. Specific goals were increased caloric and protein delivery for all patients and a more nourished state for infants with single ventricles at the time of discharge.

Methods: We developed a nutrition flow sheet in the electronic health record to track whether daily nutrition goals were met.

Extended survival and re-hospitalisation among paediatric patients requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for primary cardiac dysfunction.

Background: Although survival to hospital discharge among children requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support for medical and surgical cardio-circulatory failure has been reported in international registries, extended survival and re-hospitalisation rates have not been well described in the literature.

Material And Methods: This is a single-institution, retrospective review of all paediatric patients receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for primary cardiac dysfunction over a 5-year period.

Results: A total of 74 extracorporeal membrane oxygenation runs in 68 patients were identified, with a median follow-up of 5.

Morbidity of the arterial switch operation.

Background: The arterial switch operation (ASO) has become a safe, reproducible surgical procedure with low mortality in experienced centers. We examined morbidity, which remains significant, particularly for complex ASO.

Methods: From 2003 to 2011, 101 consecutive patients underwent ASO, arbitrarily classified as "simple" (n=52) or "complex" (n=49).

Implications of incising the ventricular septum in double outlet right ventricle and in the Ross-Konno operation.

Objective: Incision into the ventricular septum in complex biventricular repair is controversial, and has been blamed for impairing left ventricular function. This retrospective study evaluates the risk of a ventricular septal incision in patients undergoing double outlet right ventricle (DORV) repair and Ross-Konno procedure.

Methods: From January 2003 to September 2007, 11 patients with DORV had a ventricular septum (VS) incision and 12 DORV patients did not.