Abstract

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate retrospectively the relative frequencies, risk factors and diagnostic clues of congenital heart disease in newborns at our neonatal intensive care unit.

METHODS

In this study 367 cases who had underwent echocardiographic examination were evaluted retrospectively amongst 6297 newborns hospitalized at intensive care unit between September 2007-September 2009. Differences between continuous variables were analyzed by student t test. Incidences in the cases were tested for significance with the chi-squared test.

RESULTS

Mean mother age was found as 27±8 (17-42) years. One hundred five (%1.6) newborns were diagnosed as congenital heart disease. 21.9 % of newborn with congenital heart disease were mature and 78.1 premature. Frequency of congenital heart disease was 1.6 %. Parents of 16% of patients had a history of consanguineous marrige. 83.9 % of patients was hospitalized because of respiratory distress. Heart murmur was the main reason (39.3%) for echocardiography. Ventricular septal defect (34.3%) were the most common congenital cardiological defects. Transposition so great artery (6.6%) was the most common cyanotic disorder. In follow-up 34 patients underwent cardiac surgery. 11 patients passed away before cardiac surgery and 2 were lost because of postsurgical complications. While most common reasons of death were congestive heart failure and sepsis, hypoplastic left heart was the most common associated cardiac defect.

CONCLUSION

Careful cardiac examination and echocardiographic evaluation of neonates hospitalized in intensive care unit is important due to different cardiac hemodynamics even in the absence of significant cardiac findings.