Airway evaluation in children with single ventricle cardiac physiology

Children with single ventricle cardiac physiology (SVC) often require airway procedures as an adjunct to their care. Descriptive analysis with a focus on outcomes of airway procedures in SVC patients have not been fully described in the literature.

Retrospective, single-center cohort review of 270 patients born between Aug-2007 and Jan-2017. Patients were identified by cardiac database for single ventricle pathophysiology. A subset of these patients were identified to have been evaluated by otolaryngology with airway evaluations and/or interventions.

88/270 patients (32.6%) required investigation or intervention for airway pathology. The most frequent procedure was flexible fiberoptic laryngoscopy (58/88 patients); it was the only procedure performed in 40 patients. Seventeen patients required tracheostomies with an associated increased length of stay (p < 0.001). Patients with cardiac procedures involving dissection around the aortic arch were considered higher airway risk due to the threat of recurrent laryngeal nerve injury, and were more likely to have vocal cord paralysis (58%) compared to patients with lower risk procedures (21%; p < 0.001). However, on multivariate logistic regression, vocal cord paralysis did not statistically impact the odds for tracheostomy placement, although the presence of subglottic stenosis increased the odds ratio of tracheostomy by 14.7 (p = 0.02).

Children with SVC often require airway evaluation and intervention. Patients with high risk cardiac procedures had a higher risk of recurrent laryngeal nerve injury but the presence of subglottic stenosis was the best predictor for a tracheostomy. This study represents one of the largest series of SVC children evaluated for airway pathology.