A population-based study relevant to seasonal variations in causes of death in children undergoing surgery for congenital cardiac malformations.

Aims: Our objectives were, first, to study seasonal distribution of perioperative deaths within 30 days after surgery, and late death, in children undergoing surgery for congenitally malformed hearts, and second, to study the causes of late death.

Methods: We analysed a retrospective cohort of 1,753 children with congenital cardiac malformations born and undergoing surgery in the period from 1990 through 2002 with a special focus on the causes of late death. The data was obtained from the registry of congenital cardiac malformations at Rikshospitalet, Oslo, and the Norwegian Medical Birth Registry.

An extensive long term follow-up of a cohort of patients with hypoplasia of the left heart.

We report the results of follow-up of the complete cohort of Norwegian children born in the period from 1987 through 1998 in whom there was the intention to treat surgically hypoplasia of the left heart using the Norwood sequence of operations. Of the 54 children, 21 are alive. Of these, 15 have been extensively studied, while the medical state of all the remaining survivors is known from reports from other hospitals.

[Transcatheter closure of atrial septal defects in the oval fossa].

Background: We report five years' experience with transcatheter closure of defects in the oval fossa at Rikshospitalet University Hospital in Oslo, Norway.

Material And Methods: We reviewed the results in 69 patients between 1.3 and 74 years of age (median 5.