BACKGROUND: Early diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects have a well-known impact on patient´s quality of life. This study aimed to describe the population of patients with congenital heart disease submitted to percutaneous diagnostic or therapeutic procedures at a tertiary referral center. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of 1,002 patients submitted to cardiac catheterization between 2003 and 2009 at Instituto de Cardiologia do Rio Grande do Sul. Clinical, demographic and procedure variables were obtained from an institutional database and patient charts. RESULTS: Median age was 33 (0-73) years and median weight was 23 (9.6-52.6) kg. Patients were predominantly females (52%), with acyanotic heart disease (63.2%) and postnatal diagnosis (94.8%). Pulmonary stenosis (22.9%), atrial septal defect (22.5%) and patent ductus ateriosus (21.6%) were the most common acyanotic heart defects, whereas tetralogy of Fallot was the most frequent cyanotic heart disease (15,2%). Most of the procedures (58,6%) were therapeutic, including pulmonary balloon valvuloplasty (32.9%), atrial septal defect closure (20.9%) and ductus arteriosus closure (15%). Complications were observed in 19.2% of patients, and inguinal hematomas (7.8%) and fever (7.6%) were the most frequent findings. There were 3 procedure-related deaths (0.3%). CONCLUSIONS: The study results demonstrated the prevalence of therapeutic procedures in patients with acyanotic heart disease, performed with a low complication rate at a tertiary referral center.
Heart defects, congenital; Health profile; Catheterization
