Respiratory syncyital virus infection in the early period after open-heart surgery in pediatric patients: impacts on the postoperative course and treatment outcome / 中华急诊医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To summzarize the impacts of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection in the early period(< 72 h) on the postoperative course after open-heart surgery in pediatric patients, and to discuss the expe-riences on therapeutic strategies. Method From March 2005 to March 2008, 39 patients diagnosed to be RSV in-fection confmned by RSV antigen test were prospectively enrolled into RSV-infeetion group. Anoth.er 39 patients were randomly 1 1 matched with age and same type of congenital heart disease (CHD) during the same period who also underwent open-heart surgery without RSV infection (nonRSV-infection group) as control group. The medical records of these patients were retrospectivdy reviewed. The duration of mechanical ventilation (MV), length of ICU stay and hospital stay were compared between the two groups with Paired Student's t test. Meanwhile Fisher' s exact test was used to compare the differences in noninvasive positive pressure ventilation, incidence rate of re-intubafion and severe postoperative complications between groups. Patients in both groups were further divided into subgroups aceonting to differences in age, cyanosis and pulmonary arterial pressure in order to identify the dif-ferent impacts of RSV infection in patients in different settings. Results All the patients were survived and dis-charged home. RSV infection significantly prolonged the duration of MV, ICU and hospital stay (all P < 0. 05).In addition, it significantly increased the incidence of pulmonary atelectasis (P < 0.05). In patients under 6 months old, RSV infection resulted in prolongation of MV, ICU and hospital stay (all P <0.05); furthermore, it significantly increased the incidence of complications of low cardiac output syndrome and bacteria co-infection (both P = 0.05). In patients over 24 months, RSV infection had no significant impacts in all the parameters which are compared between the two groups. In patients with cyanotic CHD, RSV infection significantly prolonged the duration of MV, ICU stay and hospital stay (all P < 0.05). In patients with cyanotic CHD, RSV infection significantly prolonged the duration of ICU stay and hospital stay (P <0.05). In patients with pulmonary hyper-tension, RSV infection significantly prolonged the duration of MV, ICU and hospital stay(all P <0.05), and in-creased the incidence rate of concomitant infection (P < 0.05). However, in patients without pulmonary hyper-tension, RSV infection only significantly increased the length of hospital stay (P < 0.05). Conclusions RSV in-fection in the early period after open-heart surgery in pediatric patients has significant adverse impacts on the post-operative course, especially in those patients under 6 months old, patients with pumonary hypertension or cyanotic CHD. Early diagnosis, and effective circulatory and respiratory support,alone with antivirus results in a satisfied outcome.