Outcomes after neonatal cardiac surgery: The impact of a dedicated neonatal cardiac program

Objectives: Prematurity is a risk factor for in-hospital mortality after cardiac sur-gery. The structure of intensive care unit models designed to deliver optimal care to neonates including those born preterm with critical congenital heart disease is unknown. The objective of this study was to evaluate in-hospital outcomes after cardiac surgery across gestational ages in an institution with a dedicated neonatal cardiac program.Methods: This study is a single-center, retrospective review of infants who under-went cardiac surgical interventions from our dedicated neonatal cardiac intensive care program between 2006 and 2017. We evaluated in-hospital mortality and morbidity rates across all gestational ages.Results: A total of 1238 subjects met inclusion criteria over a 11-year period. Overall in-hospital mortality after cardiac surgery was 6.1%. The mortality rate in very pre -term infants (n = 68;<34 weeks' gestation at birth) was 17.6% (odds ratio, 3.52 [1.4-8.53]), versus 4.3% in full-term (n = 563; 39-40 weeks) referent/control infants. Very preterm infants with isolated congenital heart disease (without evidence of other affected organ systems) experienced a mortality rate of 10.5% after cardiac sur-gery. Neither the late preterm (34-36 6/7 weeks) nor the early term (37-38 6/7) groups had significantly increased odds of mortality compared with full-term infants. Seventy-eight percent of very preterm infants incurred a preoperative or postop-erative complication (odds ratio, 4.78 [2.61-8.97]) compared with 35% of full -term infants.Conclusions: In this study of a single center with a dedicated neonatal cardiac pro-gram, we report some of the lowest mortality and morbidity rates after cardiac sur-gery in preterm infants in the recent era. The potential survival advantage of this model is most striking for very preterm infants born with isolated congenital heart disease. (J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2023;165:2204-11)