Profile of Congenital Cardiopathies in Paediatric Departments A and B of the National Hospital Niamey National Hospital (Research article)

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the extent of congenital heart disease in the population of children, for a better management and prevention strategy. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive and cross-sectional study over a period of 4 years 10 months from January 2016 to October 2020 (retrospective over 4 years and prospective over 10 months) at the National Hospital of Niamey; Were included in our study all patients aged 0 to 21 with congenital heart disease confirmed by cardiac ultrasound who were hospitalized or monitored externally. Our data were analyzed by Epi Info software in version 7.2.2.6. 24. Descriptive and analytical statistics were used: the mean with standard deviation (SD) (for normal distributive variations), odds ratio (OR) and the median (Me) for the description of asymmetric distributive values. The comparison of the proportions was also carried out; to do this we used the statistical test of chi2. The test is significant if p <0.05 Results: The gender ratio was 1.005 in favour of men. The median age of our patients was 16.8 months with extremes ranging from 0 months to 247 months, the most represented age group is 29 days to 24 months with 81.1%. The majority of our patients (62.4%) came from urban areas, parental consanguinity was present in 42.2% of cases. 55.3% of our patients had reported a notion of recurrent respiratory infection. Respiratory distress was found in 29.5% of cases, followed by fatigue during feedings (16.7%). Tachycardia was found in 72.2% of our patients, 49.6% were undernourished. Heart murmur was found in 80.3% of our patients, 4.4% had Down's syndrome. Cardiomegaly was found in 64.4% of our patients, 15.7% had pulmonary hypervascularization. CIV was found in 27.03% followed by T4F, CAV, and CIA with 20.39 respectively; 17.20 and 16.95%. Surgery was indicated in 68.3%. Anemia was found in 55% of our patients, 49.6% had hyperleukocytosis. Antibiotic treatment was started in 72.7% of cases, 31.2% had benefited from diuretics, 23.8% from iron supplementation, 10.3% was on beta blockers. 18.7% had received surgical treatment, PAH and endocarditis were found in 1 and 0.73% of cases, respectively. 34.1% were awaiting surgery. The recorded death rate was 27.3%. Conclusion: Congenital heart disease is becoming more and more frequent and constitutes a very important health problem in our pediatric departments. They are dominated by CIVs and T4s. The diagnosis and their management are still difficult due to the lack of diagnostic and therapeutic means.