HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Permission Requests Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content

J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2008;135:550-551
© 2008 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery

Invited Commentary

Discussion

Dr Scott M. Bradley (Charleston, SC). Chris, that was a very nice and very clear presentation. I want to commend you as a cardiologist for being willing to come and talk to a room full of surgeons. You and your coauthors have brought to us a large and multi-institutional examination of the effects of small patient size on the outcome of congenital heart operations.

Your finding on mortality after shunt placement is interesting. If one goes through your article and takes all of the patients weighing less than 2.5 kg undergoing a shunt placement, other than a Norwood procedure, hospital mortality was 18%, a fairly striking figure, if not terribly surprising.

From a practical standpoint, when we are confronted with a small baby with CHD, we, as surgeons, have at least 2 questions: What operation do we perform, and when do we perform it? In terms of timing, is it better to operate immediately or later, perhaps waiting for growth, which generally does not occur? Because your data do not include information on patients not undergoing operations, they . . . [Full Text of this Article]