Programmatic Changes to Reduce Mortality and Morbidity in Humanitarian Congenital Cardiac Surgery

World Journal for Pediatric & Congenital Heart Surgery
Tyler J WallenRodrigo Soto

Abstract

This report documents the outcomes of cardiac surgical mission trips organized by the International Children's Heart Foundation (ICHF), a nongovernmental organization that provides congenital heart surgery services to the developing world, and discusses factors associated with a reduction of mortality and morbidity in this setting. A retrospective review of a prospectively maintained database was conducted to identify any patient who underwent surgical intervention during the course of an ICHF mission trip. From 2008 to 2016, a total of 223 trips were made to 23 countries and 3,783 operations were performed. Over 40 unique types of operations were performed with repairs of atrial septal defects (ASDs; n = 479), ventricular septal defects (VSDs; n = 760), teratology of Fallot (n = 473), and ligation of patient ductus arteriosus (PDA; n = 242), comprising the majority of cases. Several organizational policy changes were instituted in 2015. These include the requirement of the host site to have a fully functional blood bank and access to medical subspecialties, the ICHF providing 24-hour intensivist coverage, and not performing surgery on patients weighing less than 10 kg until local capacity has been developed. The overall mortal...Continue Reading

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Citations

Mar 1, 2019·Cardiology in the Young·Igor V PolivenokWilliam M Novick
Dec 25, 2019·Journal of Thyroid Research·Rifat LatifiRenato Rivera

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