Early access to a cardiac surgical hospital linked to shorter hospitalization for newborns with heart defects
· Medical Xpressby Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
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Congenital heart defects are the most common birth defects in the United States. For newborns with the most severe defects—those needing lifesaving intervention—later transfer to a cardiac surgical center is linked to longer hospitalization compared with those born at a surgical center, according to a study published in The Journal of Pediatrics.
Previous studies have shown that prolonged hospitalization is associated with higher rates of one-year mortality, as well as worse long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes for children born with severe heart defects. The results raise the question of whether reaching a cardiac surgical center sooner could affect outcomes.
"We know that newborns with severe heart defects must receive high-quality care from a big team of specialists to achieve the best outcomes. Our findings highlight how timely access to that care might relate to outcomes as well," said leading author Joyce Woo, MD, MS, a pediatric cardiologist at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "A lot of research focuses on optimizing the complex clinical care for these high-risk patients. Far less is known about how these patients and their families actually reach that care."
In the study, Woo and colleagues used a statewide administrative database (the Illinois Department of Public Health Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes Reporting System) to analyze data on nearly 1,400 newborns with the most severe heart defects in Illinois between 2013 and 2021.
They found that nearly half the infants with severe heart defects were born at hospitals without cardiac surgery. Compared with those born at a cardiac surgical center, neonates who transferred between 1 and 3 days of life did not have a significantly longer hospital stay. However, transfer to a surgical hospital after 3 days of life was associated with a longer hospital stay after birth.
"Access to lifesaving intervention isn't a guarantee for all newborns with the most complex heart disease. We must make sure that these babies reach the right level of care at the right time," Woo said.
Publication details
Joyce Woo et al, Time-to-Transfer and Hospitalization Duration for Severe Congenital Heart Defects: Implications for Perinatal Regionalization, The Journal of Pediatrics (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2026.115220
Journal information: Journal of Pediatrics
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PediatricsCardiologyChildren's health Provided by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago Who's behind this story?
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