Objective: Our objective was to evaluate the efficiency of a single surgical intervention in patients with symptomatic interventricular septal defects during the first six months of life.
Patients and methods: Between 1989 and 1997, 42 patients, 20 males and 22 females with an average age of 3.9 +/- 0.3 months and an average weight of 4 +/- 0.4 kg, were operated. Seven suffered from Down's syndrome. All of the patients became symptomatic during the first two months of life. The defect was localized by using Echo-Doppler in all of the cases. Thirty-six had perimembranous ventricular septal defects, 2 were muscular, 3 multiple and 1 was infundibular. The average defect size was 8 +/- 1.2 mm. A catheter was placed in 34 patient with the following results: Left to right shunt with 2.2 +/- 1.2, right ventricle systolic pressure of 57 +/- 20 mmHg (16 with systemic pulmonary pressure) and an average pulmonary pressure of 38 +/- 1.8 mmHg. The average pulmonary vascular resistance was 28 +/- 1.8 U/m2. Deep hypothermia (18 degrees C was applied during the surgery and the average cardiac arrest time was 31 +/- 4 minutes.
Results: None of the patients died during or after the surgical procedure. Patients required minimum ionotropic support during the first hours. The average time in the intensive care unit was 3.5 +/- 0.6 days, with an average hospitalization time of 11.2 +/- 2.1 days. Immediate complications included one hypertensive crisis, four junctional ectopic tachycardias, two atrio-ventricular blocks, 1 transient arrhythmia, two atelectasia-pneumonias, two patients with stridor and two sternal infections. During the follow-up period, two patients required a second intervention to repair the patch.
Conclusions: We believe that one-time surgery is adequate to correct symptomatic ventricular septal defects.