TY - EJOU
AU - Cresti, Alberto
AU - Giordano, Raffaele
AU - Koestenberger, Martin
AU - Spadoni, Isabella
AU - Scalese, Marco
AU - Limbruno, Ugo
AU - Falorini, Susanna
AU - Stefanelli, Stefania
AU - Picchi, Andrea
AU - Sensi, Francesco De
AU - Malandrino, Angela
AU - Cantinotti, Massimiliano
TI - Incidence and natural history of neonatal isolated ventricular septal defects: Do we know everything? A 6-year single-center Italian experience follow-up
T2 - Congenital Heart Disease
PY - 2018
VL - 13
IS - 1
SN - 1747-0803
AB - Background: Despite ventricular septal defects (VSDs) are the most common congenital heart
diseases (CHDs) in the neonatal period, their incidence and natural history are still debated and
their follow-up and management strategies remain controversial. Our aim was to evaluate the incidence and natural history of isolated VSDs.
Methods: From January 1996 to December 2015 all neonates with a CHD suspicion were
referred to the Cardiological Department of Grosseto Misericordia Hospital. Only newborns with
confirmed isolated VSD were enrolled in this study and followed for 6 years.
Results: Our 343 newborns with an isolated VSD (incidence of 10.45/1000/births) account for
64% of all detected CHDs. VSDs location were as follows: muscular (73.8%), perimembranous
(11.3%), inlet (1%), and outlet (0.8%). Of the located VSDs, 90% were small, 7.5% moderate, and
2.5% large, respectively. Spontaneous closure was observed in 96 (29.2%) of the VSD patients at
6-month, 198 (60.2%) at 1-year, 261 (79.3%) at 2-year, and in 302 (91.8%) at 6-year follow-up.
Risk factors for defect persistence were a perimembranous location (P = .001; HR: 0.508, CI:
0.342-0.755), detection of multiple defects (P = .043; HR: 0.728, CI: 0.536-0.990), and male gender (P < .048; HR: 0.783, CI: 0.615-0.998), respectively.
Conclusions: We here provide an incidence and natural history of neonatal isolated VSDs in a
neonatal Caucasian population. These data may be useful for the development of expert consensus/standard recommendation guidelines for the follow-up and VSD management, data that are
currently lacking.
KW - children
KW - echocardiography
KW - neonates
KW - ventricular septal defects
DO - 10.1111/chd.12528