“Tracheal Surgery for Airway Anomalies Associated with Increased Mortality in Pediatric Patients Undergoing Heart Surgery: Society of Thoracic Surgeons Database Analysis”

Abstract OBJECTIVES Airway anomalies are common in children with cardiac disease but with an unquantified impact on outcomes. We sought to define the association between airway anomalies and tracheal surgery with cardiac surgery outcomes using the Society of Thoracic Surgery Congenital Heart Surgery Database (STS-CHSD). METHODS Index cardiac operations in children RESULTS Of 198,674 index cardiovascular operations, 6,861 (3.4%) were performed in patients with airway anomalies including 428 (0.2%) who also underwent tracheal operations during the same hospitalization. Patients with airway anomalies underwent more complex cardiac operations (45% vs 36% STAT ≥ 3 procedures) and had a higher prevalence of pre-operative risk factors (73% vs 39%), both p CONCLUSIONS Patients undergoing cardiac surgery and tracheal surgery are at significantly higher risk of morbidity and mortality than patients receiving cardiac surgery alone. Even most of those with unoperated airway anomalies have higher morbidity and mortality which makes it an important pre-operative consideration.