Interventional cardiac catheterization in neonatal age: results in a multicentre Italian experience

Background: Despite recent technical advances, interventional cardiac catheterization is still challenging in neonatal age and no specific data concerning early outcome are so far published in literature. Methods: Neonatal trans-catheter cardiac interventions performed in high-volume Italian referral centers were retrospectively analyzed. Primary outcomes were procedural major adverse events, in-hospital mortality and procedural failure. Secondary outcomes were minor adverse events and need for blood transfusion. Results: From January 2000 to December 2017, 1423 newborns (mean weight 3.0 ± 0.6 kg, range 1.0–5.8; median age 2.0 days) underwent interventional cardiac catheterization. Overall, global procedure adverse event rate and in-hospital mortality were 10.2% and 5.2%, respectively. At multi-variable analysis, primary composite outcome was significantly related to low-weight (