Characteristics of in-hospital mortality of congenital heart disease (CHD) after surgical treatment in children from 2005 to 2017: a single-center experience

Background To evaluate trends in the in-hospital mortality rate for pediatric cardiac surgery procedures between 2005 and 2017 in our center, and to discuss the mortality characteristics of children’s CHD after thoracotomy. Methods This retrospective data were collected from medical records of children underwent CHD surgery between 2005 and 2017. Results A total of 19,114 children with CHD underwent surgery and 444 children died, with the in-hospital mortality was 2.3%. Complex mixed defect CHD had the highest fatality rate (8.63%), left obstructive lesion CHD had the second highest fatality rate (4.49%), right to left shunt CHD had the third highest mortality rate (3.51%), left to right shunt CHD had the lowest mortality rate (χ2 = 520.3, P < 0.05). The neonatal period has the highest mortality rate (12.17%), followed by infant mortality (2.58%), toddler age mortality (1.16%), and preschool age mortality (0.94%), the school age and adolescent mortality rate was the lowest (χ2 = 529.3, P < 0.05). In addition, the fatality rate in boys was significantly higher than that in girls (2.77% versus 1.62%, χ2 = 26.4, P < 0.05). Conclusions The mortality rate of CHD surgery in children decreased year by year. The younger the age and the more complicated the cyanotic heart disease, the higher the mortality rate may be.