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Child deaths during cardiac surgery decreasing

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08.10.2004

Researchers from Imperial College London have discovered that mortality figures for children undergoing open cardiac surgery have dropped to a third of that recorded before the Bristol Inquiry.

According to research published in the British Medical Journal today, mortality figures for children under one year old who have undergone open heart surgery have fallen from 12 percent between April 1991 and March 1995 to four percent between April 1999 and March 2002 in England.

Dr Paul Aylin from Imperial College London, based at St Mary’s Hospital, and one of the researchers, comments: “Improvements in care, and new technology may have played a role in this lowering of mortality for cardiac surgery, but regardless of why it has happened, it is still very good news for both patients and parents.”

The Bristol Inquiry demonstrated that between 1991 and 1995, Bristol had a much higher death rate for open heart surgery in children aged under 1 year than other centres. Since then, there have been major changes in the child cardiac surgery service. Mortality for open heart surgery in children aged under 1 year at Bristol has fallen from 29 percent to three percent, below the national average of four percent.

The team identified over 8,000 open operations between April 1991 and March 2002 in children under 1 year and over 11,000 in children aged 1-15 years in eleven centres in England. In recent years, no centres had significantly high mortality in the 1-15 years group.

Tony Stephenson | Source: alphagalileo
Further information: www.ic.ac.uk

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