Critical Congenital Heart Defects in Jos, Plateau State; A 5 Year Review Of Prevalence
Authors & Affiliations
Methodology: This was a retrospective study exploring existing echocardiography and hospital records of children aged 0 - 18 years with cyanotic CHD presenting to the Paediatric department of the JUTH from July 2021 to June 2026.
📖 Abstract Content
Cyanotic congenital heart defects (CHDs) encompass severe, duct dependent and non-duct dependent structural cardiac lesions which are significant causes of altered haemodynamic functions. Despite frequently occurring cases, the contribution of these defects to childhood mortality in this environment is not known.
To determine the spectrum and mortality rate of cyanotic CHDs over the past 5 years in Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH).
The total of 79 children with cyanotic CHD were identified; four cases were excluded due to incomplete data. The recruited cases constituted 0.72% of the 10,407 children managed within that period. The male:female ratio was 1.2:1. About a quarter of these defects were diagnosed within the first two months of life. Duct dependent lesions were detected in 10 (3.3%) children, with the commonest being hypoplastic left heart syndrome, present in 4 (40%) of them. Other critical CHD detected were transposition of the great arteries with an intact septum in 3, tricuspid atresia in 2. Among this group, 60% died during neonatal period (mortality rate: 5.8 per 10,000 cases). Truncus arteriosus was the commonest non-duct dependent defects recorded in 22 cases (29.3%)
Cyanotic CHD especially duct-dependent lesions are an important cause of mortality in children, highlighting the already existing need to strongly advocate for better health care provisions in this population.
