HOW DOES PRENATAL DIAGNOSIS OF CONGENITAL HEART DISEASES AND THE EXPERIENCE OF BIRTH CENTER AFFECT EARLY CLINICAL OUTCOMES?

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common congenital anomaly observed worldwide. Despite advances in medical and surgical techniques, CHD remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality. In this study, we aimed to compare demographic data and clinical results of patients diagnosed with severe CHDs, according to the prenatal and postnatal diagnosis. All the data of fetuses and patients, diagnosed prenatally and postnatally with severe CHDs between January 2016 and December 2018 at Baskent University Ankara Hospital, were retrospectively analyzed. Ninety-one patients fully accessible to data and diagnosed with CHD, were examined. Twenty-two (24.2%) were diagnosed with transposition of arteries, 11 (12.1%), truncus arteriosus, 11 (12.1%) hypoplastic left heart, 10 (11%) pulmonary atresia, 10 (11%) coartation of aorta, 8 (8.8%) tetralogy of fallot, 6 (6.6%) atrioventricular septal defect, 4 (4.4%) critical aortic stenosis/aortic atresia, 4 (4%) isomerism, 3 (3.3%) interrupted aorta, 1 (1.1%) Ebstein anomaly and 1 (1.1%) double outlet right ventricle. Of 91 patients, 69 patients were diagnosed prenatally and 22 postnatally. Shock was detected to be less in prenatally detected group (p = 0.022). No statistically significant difference was found among the groups in mortality scores (p = 0.531). Postoperative mortality rate of the patients was significantly higher in the postnatally diagnosed group than in the prenatally diagnosed group (p = 0.018). Our study suggests that patients with prenatally diagnosed CHD are beter managed before surgery; thus, it has been shown that surgical interventions have beter results in such cases.