Small Ventricular Septal Defect Considered not Requiring Surgical Closure: The Frequency of Developing Complications in Our Center

Abstract

Objectives: The study was conducted to check the frequency of development of complication
in the patients with small Ventricular Septal Defects (VSDs) considered not requiring surgical
closure during childhood.
Methods: A descriptive study was conducted on children from January 2015 to December 2015
at Children Hospital and Institute of Child Health, Lahore, Pakistan. The data with isolated
VSDs considered too small to require surgery from 1 month to 15 years of age were reviewed.
The data was analyzed with SPSS 20 version.
Results: The total of 883 patients of restrictive VSDs considered not to require surgery, 60.6%
(n=535) were males and 39.4% (n=348) were females. The significant number of patients
i.e. 18.7% (n=166) developed complications. Aortic cusp prolapsed developed in 13.6% i.e.
p≤0.05, 2.3% developed aortic regurgitation secondary to aortic cusp prolapsed. 1.8% developed
right ventricular track outflow obstruction (RVOT) i.e. p≤0.05 and 0.3% of patient developed
left ventricular outflow track obstruction (LVOT) i.e. p≤0.05. Similarly 0.8% patients
developed endocarditis. Regarding types of VSD, we found Perimembranous in 65.8%, muscular
in 12.6%, Subaorticin 8.3%, doubly committed in 6.0%, Inlet in 5% and outlet in 1.7%
of our patients.
Conclusions: Patients with small restrictive Ventricular Septal Defects (VSDs) generally been
considered as do not required surgery, the data suggested that a significant percentage of these
patients developed complications later in their life i.e., 18.7%.