Improve basics to save children with congenital heart defects, say experts

KOCHI: Simple, low-cost quality improvement techniques like preventing hospital-acquired infections through hand hygiene, empowerment of nurses in better communication on patient concerns, surgical safety check-lists to improve teamwork and conducting mortality meetings can do much more to improve the outcomes of child heart surgery than expensive new technology and equipment in developing countries like India, top pediatric cardiologists from countries like India, US, Pakistan, Malaysia and Vietnam attending a two-day session of the International Quality Improvement Collaborative (IQIC) on Congenital Heart Surgery at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (Amrita Hospital), here said on Friday.

“Two examples of these include establishment of a robust infection control and prevention programme in the ICU and implementation of a surgical safety checklist," said Dr. Krishna Kumar, head, Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Amrita Hospital, Kochi. The surgeons at the session noted that India has the largest burden of child heart disease in the world, with over 200,000 children being born every year with congenital heart defects (CHD). In Kerala, CHD is a leading cause of infant mortality.

A large proportion of CHDs are correctable through a single surgery or, sometimes, a catheter-based procedure. For this reason, access to a pediatric cardiac facility that provides affordable care is critical. Only about 10% of the affected infants receive timely intervention in India. In all probability, the remaining 90% children do not survive, it was noted at the seminar.