Growth of Children With Congenital Heart Disease

CHILDRENwith congenital heart disease may have significant growth disturbance.^1-3 Longitudinal studies have shown that the majority of children will have accelerated growth following correction of patent ductus arteriosus.^4-6 There are no reported longitudinal studies of the response of growth following the surgical correction of other cardiac defects. We have studied growth following surgical correction of nine different congenital cardiac defects. The results have provided information on postoperative growth acceleration and have identified clinical situations in which accelerated postoperative growth was less likely to occur.

Materials and Methods  The 463 patients in this study were selected from a group of children with congenital heart disease who were seen consecutively from April 1, 1963, through Sept 30, 1963, and followed to Jan 1, 1968. Their ages ranged from 1 week to 17 years. Children were admitted to the study if they had one of nine cardiac defects (Table 1) and