A retrospective review was performed for all infants below 2.2 kg who underwent cardiac operations at King Abdulaziz Cardiac Center from January 2001 to October 2011. Cases with LBW (Group A) were compared with matching group (Group B) of normal body weight infants who had similar cardiac surgeries and matching surgical risk category. The demographic, ICU parameters, complications, and short-term outcome of both groups were analyzed.
Two groups were formed, with 37 patients in Group A, and 39 patients in Group B. Except for weight (2.13 ± 0.08 kg in Group A vs 3.17 ± 0.2 kg in Group B), there was no statistical difference in demographic data between both groups. Cardiac procedures included coarctation repair, arterial switch, ventricular septal defect (VSD) repair, tetralogy of Fallot repair, systemic to pulmonary shunt and Norwood procedures. Patients in Group A had statistically significant difference from Group B in terms of bypass time (p = 0.01), duration of inotropes (p = 0.01), duration of mechanical ventilation (p = 0.004), number of re-intubations (p = 0.015), PCICU length of stay (p = 0.007), and hospital mortality: 13.5% in Group A vs 0% in Group B (p value 0.02).
Patients with LBW (<2.2 kg) underwent cardiac surgery with overall satisfactory results, but with increased risk of ICU morbidity and mortality.