1. Attitudes & practices surrounding pregnancy post heart transplant among pediatric providers.
- Author
-
Collins, Megan M., Ou, Zhining, Millar, Morgan M., Kittleson, Michelle M., May, Lindsay J., Ploutz, Michelle S., Molina, Kimberly M., Hayes, Katherine G., and Lal, Ashwin K.
- Subjects
- *
HEART transplantation , *EPIDEMIOLOGICAL transition , *PREGNANCY , *TRANSITION to adulthood , *LUNG transplantation , *FISHER exact test - Abstract
Many pediatric heart transplant (HT) recipients reach adulthood and may be interested in family planning; there is little data regarding safety of pregnancy post HT and clinicians' opinions differ. Pediatric HT clinicians are instrumental in early counseling. Thus, a better understanding of pediatric HT clinicians' practices regarding family planning and how well aligned these practices are with adult transplant centers is essential. We conducted a confidential, web-based survey of pediatric HT clinicians in fall 2021. We summarized and compared answers using Fisher's exact test. The survey was sent to 53 United States-based HT directors and to the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation and Pediatric Heart Transplant Society list serves. There were 69 respondents. The majority (77%) of respondents felt pregnancy was feasible in selected or all female HT recipients. Ten respondents reported that their institution had an established policy regarding pregnancy post HT. A majority (77%) of HT clinicians would either use a shared care model or recommend transition to their adult institution if pregnancy occurred, though 74% of respondents were either unaware of their corresponding adult institution's policy (62%) or had a counterpart adult program with a policy against pregnancy post HT (12%). While many clinicians feel pregnancy is feasible in pediatric HT recipients, there remains significant practice variation. Few pediatric programs have a policy regarding pregnancy post HT. Future efforts to provide consistent messaging between adult and pediatric HT programs regarding the feasibility and care of post HT pregnancy are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF