BMJ  2004;328:611 (13 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.38027.613403.F6 (published 24 February 2004)

Paper

Survival after surgery or therapeutic catheterisation for congenital heart disease in children in the United Kingdom: analysis of the central cardiac audit database for 2000-1

¹ Central Cardiac Audit Database, Department of Paediatric Cardiology, Leeds General Infirmary, Calverley, Leeds LS1 3EX jgibbs{at}boltblue.com, ² Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons of England and Ireland, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton SO16 6YD, ³ Central Cardiac Audit Database, Royal Brompton Hospital, London SW3 6NP

Objectives To analyse simple national statistics and survival data collected in the central cardiac audit database after treatment for congenital heart disease and to provide long term comparative statistics for each contributing centre.

Design Prospective, longitudinal, observational, national cohort survival study.

Setting UK central cardiac audit database.

Main outcome measures Survival at 30 days and one year after treatment in the year April 2000-March 2001, assessed by using both volunteered life status and independently validated life status through the Office for National Statistics, using the patient's unique NHS number, or the general register offices of Scotland and Northern Ireland. Institutional results following a group of six benchmark operations and three benchmark catheterisation procedures.

Results Since April 2000 data have been received from all 13 UK tertiary centres performing cardiac surgery or therapeutic cardiac catheterisation in children with congenital heart disease. Altogether 3666 surgical procedures and 1828 therapeutic catheterisations were performed. Central tracking of mortality identified 469 deaths, 194 occurring within 30 days and 275 later. Forty two of the 194 deaths within 30 days were detected by central tracking but not by volunteered data. For surgery overall, survival at 30 days was 94.9%, falling to 91.2% at one year; this effect was most marked for infants. For therapeutic catheterisation survival at 30 days was 99.1%, falling to 98.1% at one year. Survival of individual centres or individual operators did not differ from the national average after benchmark procedures.

Conclusions Independent data validation is essential for accurate survival analysis. One year survival gives a more realistic view of outcome than traditional perioperative mortality. Currently no detectable difference exists in survival between any of the 13 UK tertiary congenital heart disease centres, but confidence intervals for small centres are wide, limiting our power to detect underperformance from analysis of a single year's data. Appropriately resourced, focused national audit is capable of accurate data collection on which nationwide, long term quality control can be based.

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