Long-term growth of children with congenital heart disease: a retrospective study

This retrospective study evaluates long‐term growth of children with congenital heart disease (CHD) and looks for possible relationships between postsurgical catch‐up growth and both severity of preoperative growth failure and operation age. Growth data of 123 children with isolated CHD were available. Mean z‐scores and 95% confidence intervals for weight, height and weight‐for‐height were plotted for age‐periods as well as for pre‐ and postoperative periods. Growth of children with a large VSD or a Tetralogy of Fallot was most abnormal and improved but did not normalize after operation. Catch‐up growth for length was strongly correlated with severity of the preoperative growth failure (r= 0.92, p < 0.05) but not with operation age (r= 0.20, NS). We conclude that surgical correction results in catch‐up growth for most individuals. Catchup growth is positively correlated with the severity of the initial growth disturbance and not with age at the moment of surgical correction.