Results of Cardiologic Evaluation at Our Newborns Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

Congenital heart disease (CHD) are the most common congenital anomaly in newborns. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the frequency and distribution of CHD among babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of our center. Between June 2018 and February 2020, 109 babies were diagnosed with congenital heart disease among 1779 babies who were admitted to the NICU. The most frequent reasons of pediatric cardiology consultation were murmur and respiratory problems. Of newborns with CHD, 85.3%, have acyanotic and 11.1% have cyanotic CHD. The mean gestational age, postnatal age and the bodyweight of the cases were 33.4 weeks, 2.5 days and 1.58 kg, consecutively. 52.3% were male and 47.7% were female. The incidence of CHD in our center was 6.05%. The most common acyanotic CHDs were ventricular septal defect (24.8%), patent ductus arteriosus (23%) and atrial septal defect (16.6%). The most common cyanotic CHDs were Tetralogy of Fallot (3.7%) and transposition of the great arteries (1.8%). As a result, a significant portion of our patients were diagnosed acyanotic CHD. We think that the frequency of CHDs in our NICU will possibly change as the preferability of our center increases for pediatric cardiac surgery. Congenital heart diseases remain as common and important health problem in the neonatal period. Therefore, early cardiological evaluation is very important for management of these patients. The incidence of CHDs in the NICU is higher than in all live births. © 2021 OMU