[Interventricular communication in the neonatal period]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and the follow-up in the long run of ventricular septal defect in the neonatal period.

222 patients with ventricular septal defect from a total amount of 30,840 newborns admitted to our Hospital were evaluated between January 1991 and December 1996 (The incidence accounts for 7.19 per 1,000 newborns). 123 of these patients were males (55.4%) and 99 females (44.6%). The mean age at the time of examination was 3.09 +/- 1.67 days (range from 1 to 11 days). Diagnosis was suspected because of a harsh systolic murmur in 207 cases (93.2%), a malformative syndrome in 10 (4.5%) or polypnea in 5 (2.3%). The study was performed with a Sonos 1000 Echocardiograph device. The mean follow-up period ranged from 1 to 72 months. 10 patients underwent cardiac catheterization (4.5%).

A muscular defect was the common finding in 177 patients (79.7%) whereas 41 patients (18.5%) exhibited a perimembranous defect. The mean size defect was 2.9 +/- 1.2 mm (range 1-10 mm), being smaller in the muscular defects (2.56 +/- 0.68) than in the perimembranous defects (4.33 +/- 1.56) p < 0.001. Spontaneous closure occurred in 176 ventricular septal defects (79.3%), 155 of them corresponding to muscular defects (87.6%) and 18 to perimembranous defects (43.9%). The mean age at the time of spontaneous closure was 9.5 +/- 8.9 months (9.4 +/- 9 months in the muscular defects and 10.3 +/- 4 months in the perimembranous defects). Spontaneous closure occurred by age 6 months in 52% of the patients with ventricular septal defect (54.5% muscular defects, 33.3% perimembranous defects), 12 months in 72.7% (71.2% muscular defects and 83.3% perimembranous defects) and 24 months in 96% (96.1% muscular defects and 94.4% perimembranous defects). 10 patients underwent surgical repair by age 11 +/- 8 months. All of them exhibited perimembranous defects with a mean size 6 +/- 1.5 mm which were tantamount to 24.4% of this group. 3 patients died (1.4%), 2 suffering from trisomy 18 and 1 after cardiac surgical repair.

The most common ventricular septal defects in the neonatal period occur in the region of the muscular septum. The prognosis is favourable. Most of the patients experience spontaneous closure and show a very low mortality rate which is basically related to extracardiac anomalies.