UPI
Diagnosis of congenital heart defects while a baby is still in the womb offers opportunities for earlier corrective surgery. And that can mean better outcomes for an infant’s neurodevelopmental and physical health, new research shows.
“For infants with critical disease especially, getting surgery a week earlier can make a big difference in the development of the brain and other organs,” said lead author Dr. Joyce Woo, a cardiologist at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
“Earlier surgery for certain types of noncritical congenital heart disease can also prevent poor outcomes, such as heart failure,” she added in a hospital news release. “Our findings emphasize that prenatal diagnosis is crucial to optimize surgical timing and the long-term health of the baby. Prenatal diagnosis needs to be equitably accessible to all pregnant people.”
Congenital heart defects affect nearly 1% of all live births.
The association between earlier diagnosis and earlier surgery was found for those with critical defects, where surgery is required before a baby can leave the hospital, and also for certain noncritical defects, the study authors said.
On average, prenatally diagnosed babies had surgery one week sooner than those diagnosed after birth, the findings showed. For those with noncritical defects, surgery happened between two and 12 months sooner.
For the study, Woo’s team analyzed 1,131 patients aged 9 years and younger with congenital heart defects. All received their initial heart surgery at Lurie Children’s between 2015 and 2021. About half were diagnosed prenatally.
