OBJECTIVE:

To report survival of newborns with congenital heart disease who underwent cardiac surgery during neonatal period.

DESIGN:

Descriptive, ambispective.

SETTING:

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Hospital de PediatrÝa, Centro MÚdico Nacional Siglo XXI.

PATIENTS:

We studied 74 newborns with congenital heart defects who underwent corrective surgery, palliative surgery or interventional techniques and received preoperative and postoperative care in NICU. Premature patients with patent ductus arteriosus were excluded.

RESULTS:

The following median values were found: birth weight was 2,862 g, gestational age was 39 weeks, onset of symptoms was 1 day, age at surgery was 14.5 days and postoperative hospital stay was 9 days. Most frequent congenital heart defects were single-ventricle, transposition of the great arteries and hypoplastic right heart. Fifty percent of surgeries were corrective, 46 were palliative and 4 were interventional techniques. Global survival was 51, for curative surgery was 43 and for palliative surgery was 58. Only 3 patients underwent interventional cardiology, 2 of them died (survival 33).

CONCLUSIONS:

Global survival in newborns who underwent cardiac surgery is lower in comparison with other studies. Survival is higher in children with palliative surgery in comparison with those who underwent corrective surgery.