Children with transposition of the great arteries: Should they actually be born in Nigeria?

Aim: To describe the clinical and echocardiographic features of Nigerian children with transposition of the great arteries and emphasize the need for collaboration with cardiac centres in the developed countries to be able to salvage the children.

Methods: Prospective and cross sectional involving consecutive patients diagnosed with transposition of the great arteries using clinical evaluation and echocardiography at the Paediatric Department of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Lagos Nigeria as part of a large study between January 2007 and December 2015.

Results: There were 51 cases of transposition of the great arteries within the study period with a male to female ratio of 2:1 and a prevalence of 1.55 per 10000 among population of children who presented to centre during the study. Its proportion amongst children with congenital heart disease was 4.9%, while it was 15.4% among those with cyanotic congenital heart disease. The mean age ± SD of the subjects was 10.3 ± 21.8 mo. Up to 70% of the patients were less than 6 mo of age at initial presentation. The most common mode of presentation was cyanosis. The most common associated intracardiac anomaly was ventricular septal defect which occurred in 56% of the patients.

Conclusion: Transposition of the great arteries is as common in Nigeria as in the other parts of the world. The most common mode of presentation was cyanosis. There is an urgent need to establish paediatric cardiac centres in Nigeria if these children are to be salvaged.