ABSTRACT
Prostaglandin E1, used since 1975, has changed favorably the clinical and surgical prognosis of neonates with congenital heart defects, mainly those with a variety of ductus-dependent defects. Due to recent modifications that have been observed with this drug as far as dosage, side effects, duration of venous infusion and the response of the different cardiac anomalies, this study was undertaken on 47 neonates evaluated with drug infusion between December 1985 and April 1988. The ages of the patients varied from 12 hours to 70 days (median age of 10.3 days), body weight ranged from 1990 to 4430 g (median of 3005 g). The average dose corresponded to 0.021 mcg/kg/min, varying between 0.013 to 0.0089 mcg/kg/min. The therapy was considered effective in 36 (76.5%) patients, evaluated by clinical improvement, increase of arterial oxygen saturation greater than 15 vol. O2% and increased ductus diameter measured by echocardiographic study. In the correlation between the therapeutic result and the patient age, the greatest elevation of arterial oxygen saturation occurred until 21 days of age, especially up to 7 days of age where the elevation in this period was of 24.5 vol. O2%. The cardiac defects that best responded to PGE1 were pulmonary atresia with or without ventricular septal defect, Ebstein's anomaly, tricuspid atresia, pulmonic stenosis, double outlet right ventricle, and those that the arterial oxygen saturation increase was less than 10 vol. O2% such as the hypoplastic left heart syndrome, tetralogy of Fallot and transposition of the great arteries. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
