Perioperative complications in a paediatric cardiac surgery program with limited systemic resources.

Background: The perioperative complications rate in paediatric cardiac surgery, as well as the failure-to-rescue impact, is less known in low- and middle-income countries.

Aim: To evaluate perioperative complications rate, mortality related to complications, different patients' demographics, and procedural risk factors for perioperative complication and post-operative death.

Methods: Risk factors for perioperative complications and operative mortality were assessed in a retrospective single-centre study which included 296 consecutive children undergoing cardiac surgery.

Results of international assistance for a paediatric heart surgery programme in a single Ukrainian centre.

Background: Surgery for CHD has been slow to develop in parts of the former Soviet Union. The impact of an 8-year surgical assistance programme between an emerging centre and a multi-disciplinary international team that comprised healthcare professionals from developed cardiac programmes is analysed and presented.Material and methodsThe international paediatric assistance programme included five main components - intermittent clinical visits to the site annually, medical education, biomedical engineering support, nurse empowerment, and team-based practice development.

Reverse Szabo technique for stenting a single major aorto-pulmonary collateral vessel in pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect.

Management of pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect (PA-VSD) in the neonatal period presents numerous challenges. Endovascular stenting of the ductus arteriosus or of a collateral vessel in ductal-dependent pulmonary circulation as an alternative to the Blalock-Taussig (BT) shunt has become increasingly popular in the last decades. The utilization of the reverse Szabo (anchor-wire) technique for single collateral vessel stenting in a case of PA-VSD is described.