Excellent medium to long term outcomes after cardiac surgery for moderate and complex congenital heart disease, regardless of geographic location

Objective

To compare the outcomes for repaired tetralogy of Fallot and Fontan patients who must travel from regional Victoria and interstate, in order to receive specialist congenital heart disease (CHD) surgery and ongoing care, with those of local patients.

Methods

This retrospective study included 332 patients who underwent tetralogy of Fallot (ToF) repair and 159 patients who underwent a Fontan procedure at Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) Melbourne between 2003 and 2017. Data was obtained from the National CHD Registry, linked with National Death Index data, and follow-up data from the Australian and New Zealand Fontan Registry.

Results

Equivalent outcomes were observed between location groups in both cohorts for all of the main outcomes of interest. Repaired ToF subjects were aged 0.76 years (IQR 0.52–3.33) at operation and 10.2 years (IQR 5.46–14.9) at last follow-up, whilst Fontan subjects were aged 4.94 (IQR 4.27–5.66) years at operation and 14.2 years (IQR 11.3–16.4) at last follow-up. Mortality rates were extremely low and did not significantly differ between geographic groups, with 10-year survival in the repaired ToF cohort 98.0 % in the City group, 98.1 % in the Regional group, and 98.8 % in the Interstate group; and 97.8 %, 92.3 %, and 97.5 % in the Fontan cohort, respectively.

Conclusions

In the Australian setting and with adequate planning and local follow-up options, patients travelling from regional areas or interstate for their CHD operations have similar outcomes, out to 21 years, compared to patients living locally.