BMJ  2005;330:324 (12 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7487.324-b

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Cardiac mortality in children in Oxford hospital is not excessive

Caroline White

London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Fears that mortality in children who needed heart surgery in Oxford was excessively high—suggesting a possible repeat of the incidents at the Bristol Royal Infirmary—are unfounded, an investigation has shown.

Two UK studies on survival rates after heart surgery across the United Kingdom in children less than 1 year old, which were published in the BMJ last year, prompted the Department of Health to request an investigation by Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority.

The first study was an analysis of survival rates for 2000-1, which relied on returns to the central cardiac audit database ( BMJ 2004;328: 611-20[Abstract/Free Full Text]). It found no differences among the 13 UK centres.

A later study, however, which used hospital episode statistics for 1991-2002, found a death rate of 11% at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust. This exceeded the 4% national average for the period ( BMJ 2004;329: . . . [Full text of this article]


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