We reviewed all 64 articles ever published by The Congenital Heart Surgeons' Society (CHSS) Data Center to estimate the academic impact of these peer-reviewed articles.The Congenital Heart Surgeons' Society has performed research based on 12 Diagnostic Inception Cohorts. The first cohort (Transposition) began enrolling patients on January 1, 1985. We queried PubMed to determine the number of publications that referenced each of the 64 journal articles generated by the datasets of the 12 Diagnostic Inception Cohorts that comprise the CHSS Database. Descriptive summaries of the data were tabulated using mean with standard deviation and median with range.Sixty-four peer-reviewed papers have been published based on the CHSS Database. Fifty-nine peer-reviewed articles have been published based on the 12 Diagnostic Inception Cohorts, and five additional articles have been published based on Data Science. Excluding the recently established Diagnostic Inception Cohort for patients with Ebstein malformation of tricuspid valve, the number of papers published per cohort ranged from 1 for coarctation to 11 for transposition of the great arteries. The 11 articles generated from the CHSS Transposition Cohort were referenced by a total of 111 articles (median number of references per journal article = 9 [range = 0-22, mean = 10.1]). Overall, individual articles were cited by an average of 11 (mean), and a maximum of 41 PubMed-listed publications. Overall, these 64 peer-reviewed articles based on the CHSS Database were cited 692 times in PubMed-listed publications. The first CHSS peer-reviewed article was published in 1987, and during the 35 years from 1987 to 2022, inclusive, the annual number of CHSS publications has ranged from 0 to 7, with a mean of 1.8 publications per year (median = 1, mode = 1).Congenital Heart Surgeons' Society studies are widely referenced in the pediatric cardiac surgical literature, with over 10 citations per published article. These cohorts provide unique information unavailable in other sources of data. A tool to access this analysis is available at: [https://data-center.chss.org/multimedia/files/2022/CAI.pdf].
Aortic valve repair techniques are still evolving with better understanding of aortic root and leaflet imaging. This study seeks to present the results of an additional new technique in aortic valve repair of patients with congenital heart disease. The technique entails remodeling of the leaflet by intentional peeling of the myxomatous tissue to remodel the thickened leaflets (from the ventricular side of the aortic valve along with thinning and plication of the central region of the leaflets). Other repair techniques are added to complete the repair. We performed a retrospective chart analysis of 19 patients who underwent aortic valve remodeling for aortic regurgitation and received advanced imaging preoperative assessment from January 2022 to February 2024. Institutional Review Board approval was obtained under expedited review for retrospective studies. All patients with a wide range of congenital pathologies underwent leaflet remodeling; 9 patients (47%) underwent additional valve-sparing root replacement, and 6 patients (32%) received subaortic annuloplasty. Fifteen patients (79%) had moderate or severe aortic insufficiency at the time of presentation. Mean clinical follow-up was 10 months (range, 1.9-31). At follow-up, 7 patients did not have aortic regurgitation on echocardiogram, and the remaining 12 patients had mild regurgitation. None of the patients had more than mild regurgitation. All patients assessed for left ventricular ejection fraction at follow-up had an ejection fraction greater than 50%. None of the patients required reoperation. Leaflet remodeling by intentional peeling of myxomatous tissue expands leaflet dimensions by freeing tethered portions and improves mobility and coaptation. This additional technique will preserve more valves from replacement. However, further follow-up is needed.
