Long-term results using glutaraldehyde treated homograft pericardium in congenital heart surgery.

Abstract Background This study reports the long-term outcomes using glutaraldehyde-treated cryopreserved homograft pericardium (CPH) in neonates, infants, children, and young adults undergoing congenital cardiac surgery. Methods A retrospective review was performed of all patients at our institution who had undergone surgical implantation with the CPH between 2006 and 2016. We identified 134 consecutive patients implanted with 276 patches. The baseline demographics, primary cardiac diagnosis, surgical characteristics, operative reports, and postoperative catherization and reoperation reports were analyzed. The use of the CPH was categorized by specific anatomic insertion site. Results The median age at implant was 1.47 years (1 day to 31.6 years). The numbers and locations of patch use were 124 for pulmonary arterial repair, 57 for repair of the aorta, 49 for septal repair, and 43 at other sites. At median follow-up of 5.29 years, nine patients died (6.7%) but none of those deaths were related to the CPH. Twelve patients (8.96%) underwent reoperations and eighteen patients (13.4%) underwent catheter interventions at sites of CPH implantation. The ten-year freedom from patch-induced reoperation and catheter intervention were 88.5% and 86.9%, respectively. Overall patch failure-free-survival was 85.8% and 79.0% at five and ten years, respectively. Conclusions The use of CPH patch in the surgical correction of congenital heart disease is effective and durable as evidenced by the low re-intervention rates. These results are comparable to the early and mid-term outcomes of other similarly used surgical patches. This is the first report of outcomes using the CPH.