Child’s Cardiopathies at the Hospital De La Paix in Ziguinchor (Senegal)

Abstract

Introduction: Childhood heart disease consists of congenital and acquired heart disease. The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiological pro-file and the clinical and aetiological characteristics of childhood heart disease at the Hôpital de la Paix in Ziguinchor. Method: This was a retrospective study from 1 January 2016 to 1 June 2020 in the cardiology and paediatrics departments of the Hôpital de la Paix in Ziguinchor. We included in the study all patients aged 0 - 18 years, hospitalised with heart disease confirmed by cardiac ultrasound. Results: In total, we included 57 patients in the study. The hospital prevalence was 1.6%. The average age was 67.85 ± 65 months. The predominance was male with a sex ratio of 0.96. The majority of mothers (50%) were between 15 and 30 years old. In our study, 8.85% of patients had a history of previous angina. Trisomy 21 was present in 12.35% of our patients. Severe acute malnutrition was found in 21.05% of cases. Lower limb oedema (82.4%) and dyspnoea (59.6%) were the most frequent clinical signs. On cardiac ultrasound, 52.6% of patients had congenital heart disease and 47.4% of patients had acquired heart disease. Ventricular septal defect (33.33%) was the most common congenital heart disease. Among the acquired heart diseases, mitral insufficiency predominated with 70.8% of cases. Infective endocarditis was the main complication observed. Management was mainly drug-based with diuretics and ACE inhibitors. No patient had undergone surgery. The in-hospital evolution was favourable in 85.9% of cases and the mortality rate was 10.5%. Conclusion: Our study showed that congenital heart disease was more frequent than acquired heart disease and that management, particularly surgery, was lacking.