Congenital heart disease in Nigerian children: a multicenter echocardiographic study

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in childhood. We report on the spectrum of echocardiographically diagnosed CHD from three different centers across Nigeria.

Over a period of 42 months, children who were referred for echocardiographic evaluation in the centers located in three large metropolitan cities were consecutively recruited if they were confirmed to have identifiable CHD. Data were collected on age, gender, and types of CHD and analyzed using SPSS 16 (Chicago, Illinois,).

A total of 605 children were recruited, their mean age was 2.1 ± 3.5 (range 0-17) years, and 296 (48.9%) were males. Nearly half (42.5%) had echocardiographic diagnosis of their CHD within the first year of life. Only 17% of the diagnoses were made in the neonatal age group. Acyanotic CHDs were more common than the cyanotic heart diseases (82.8% vs 17.2%). The most common CHD was ventricular septal defect (VSD; 46.6%) followed by patent ductus arteriosus (12.1%), atrial septal defect (8.7%), atrioventricular septal defect (8.2%), and tetralogy of Fallot (7.8%). More than half of the VSDs were perimembranous (55.1%) followed by outlet VSD (23.8%), muscular (10.7%), and inlet VSD (9.6%). Only 42 (6.9%) of the entire study population had definitive intervention.

The VSD is the most prevalent CHD in Nigerian children. There is increasing awareness, availability, and use of diagnostic facilities as mirrored in the age distribution of the children. However, access to definitive surgery is poor and draws attention to the urgent need for affordable surgical facilities in the country.