Perioperative complications in a paediatric cardiac surgery program with limited systemic resources

BACKGROUND: The perioperative complications rate in paediatric cardiac surgery, as well as the failure-to-rescue impact, is less known in low- and middle-income countries. AIM: To evaluate perioperative complications rate, mortality related to complications, different patients' demographics, and procedural risk factors for perioperative complication and post-operative death. METHODS: Risk factors for perioperative complications and operative mortality were assessed in a retrospective single-centre study which included 296 consecutive children undergoing cardiac surgery. RESULTS: Overall mortality was 5.7%. Seventy-three patients (24.7%) developed 145 perioperative complications and had 17 operative mortalities (23.3%). There was a strong association between the number of perioperative complications and mortality - 8.1% among patients with only 1 perioperative complication, 35.3% - with 2 perioperative complications, and 42.1% - with 3 or more perioperative complications (p = 0.007). Risk factors of perioperative complications were younger age (odds ratio 0.76; (95% confidence interval 0.61, 0.93), previous cardiac surgery (odds ratio 3.5; confidence interval 1.33, 9.20), extracardiac structural anomalies (odds ratio 3.03; confidence interval 1.27, 7.26), concomitant diseases (odds ratio 3.23; confidence interval 1.34, 7.72), and cardiopulmonary bypass (odds ratio 6.33; confidence interval 2.45, 16.4), whereas the total number of perioperative complications per patient was the only predictor of operative death (odds ratio 1.89; confidence interval 1.06, 3.37). CONCLUSIONS: In a program with limited systemic resources, failure-to-rescue is a major contributor to operative mortality in paediatric cardiac surgery. Despite the comparable crude mortality, the operative mortality among patients with perioperative complications in our series was significantly higher than in the developed world. A number of initiatives are needed in order to improve failure-to-rescue rates in low- and middle-income countries.