A systematic review of motor and cognitive outcomes after early surgery for congenital heart disease

Abstract

CONTEXT: Brain injury is the most common long-term complication of congenital heart disease requiring surgery during infancy. It is clear that the youngest patients undergoing cardiac surgery, primarily neo-nates and young infants, are at the greatest risk for brain injury. Develop-mental anomalies sustained early in life have lifelong repercussions. OBJECTIVE: We conducted a systematic reviewto examine longitudinal studies of cognitive and/or motor outcome after cardiac surgery dur-ing early infancy. METHODS: Electronic searches were performed in Medline, the Cumu-lative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (Cinahl), and Em-base (1998-2008). The search strategy yielded 327 articles..