[Neurologic outcome in infants surgically treated for congenital cardiopathy: preliminary data].

Introduction: Both surgical techniques for correction of congenital heart diseases (CHD) and intraoperatory neurologic protection improved during the last 20 years. Nevertheless cardiac surgery is still a risk for neurologic morbidity.

Methods And Patients: Analysis of the postoperative neurologic status of infants younger than 6 months who underwent cardiac surgery from January 1998 to December 1999. We reviewed the EEG tracings, cranial ultrasound reports (CUS) and CT scans of 48 patients. Diagnoses were: ventricular septal defect = 15, Fallot (TOF) = 9, patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) = 5, coarctation of aorta = 4, atrio-ventricular septal defect = 4, transposition of great arteries (TGA) = 3, hypoplastic left heart syndrome = 2, pulmonary atresia = 2, total anomalous pulmonary veins drainage = 2, double outlet right ventricle = 1, cor triatriatum = 1. Mean age (range) at intervention was 54 days (2-150), 44 infants (91.7%) survived at follow-up: 23 EEG, 22 CUS and 2 CT were performed in the recent postoperative. Among survivors 5/44 had neurologic complications. EEG was altered in 4: two of them (1 TOF, 1 TGA) had pathologic CUS and CT as well (ischemic pattern in the former, atrophy in the latter). Finally a preterm newborn with PDA had mild abnormalities at CUS. After a mean follow-up of 16 +/- 6 months 3/5 patients had mild-to-moderate psychomotor delay and 2 recovered.

Conclusions: According to our preliminary data the prevalence of neurologic complications in infants who undergo cardiac surgery seems to be low. The pathological findings of the recent postoperative seem to recover up to normalization in some cases at mid-term follow-up. As expected, permanent complications effect more often complex CHD. Further follow-up studies to school age will be mandatory to check the very final results of cardiac surgery performed during early infancy.