Perioperative Risk Factors and Outcomes in Children with Congenital Heart Diseases in Armenia

Abstract

Objective: The study describes the perioperative risk factors and outcomes of congenital heart disease surgery at Nork Marash Medical Center (NMMC) in Yerevan, Armenia to benchmark NMMC’s performance against international peers and guide quality improvement efforts. Background: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is one of the three leading types of birth defects causing perinatal mortality in Armenia. CHD surgery outcomes depend on institution, hospital and surgeon volume, case complexity and patient characteristics such as age, weight, sex, presence of prematurity and a number of concomitant clinical conditions. The only hospital in Armenia specializing in pediatric cardiac surgery is the Nork Marash Medical Center (NMMC). This project analyzed NMMC’s existing CHD pediatric surgery performance data. Methods: This cross-sectional quantitative study analyzed perioperative risk factors and cardiac surgery outcome indicators (early postoperative complications and mortality rates) among the pediatric population diagnosed with congenital heart disease (CHD) who underwent surgery at NMMC from the year 2005 to 2010. To adjust for the different risks associated with various procedure types, the study used the Risk Adjustment in Congenital Heart Surgery-1 method (RACHS-1). This method classifies CHD surgery cases into one of six risk categories, from 1(the lowest risk) to 6 (the highest risk), based on the specific procedure codes. Independent predictors of surgical outcomes were identified using survival analysis and logistic regression modeling. Results: A total of 400 consecutive cases (medical records) were reviewed. Nearly half of the study population was under the age of 12 months. Early postoperative complications were observed in 12.4% of studied cases; the crude early mortality rate was 9%. Mortality rates of specific RACHS-1 categories were 2.1% in the 1st, 2.3% in 2nd, 18.9% in 3rd, 41.2% in 4th and 66.7% in 6th category. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis identified a significant inverse trend across RACH-1 groups (p< 0.001, log rank test). In the final logistic regression models, lower weight and higher RACHS-1 score were associated with increased operative death and complication rates. Conclusion: Risk Adjustment for Congenital Heart Surgery-1 method can be used to predict CHD surgical mortality at NMMC. Higher RACHS-1 score and lower weight in this study clinically and statistically predicted significantly poorer outcome. The crude operative mortality at NMMC was comparable to the results other international studies.