Study identifies why child heart operations go wrong

Human and organisational factors have a significant role in determining whether a surgical operation has a good or bad outcome, according to research outlined last week to the public inquiry into child heart surgery at Bristol.

Marc de Leval, professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Great Ormond Street children's hospital in London, previewed the results of a study which looked at all the arterial switch operations performed in the United Kingdom over an 18 month period. Of 230 operations, 165 were studied in detail. The research is to be published soon in the Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery.

The switch, performed in the first month of life to correct transposition of the great arteries of the heart, is one of two paediatric heart operations looked into by the General Medical Council in its …