OBJECTIVETo retrospectively analyze the experience of one-stage surgical correction for children with congenital heart diseases and tracheal stenosis and further to clear the principle of treatment for these patients.

METHODSFrom January 2006 to June 2013, 48 patients with congenital heart diseases and tracheal stenosis underwent surgical correction. There were 36 male and 12 female patients. The mean age at operation was (23 ± 27)months (range: 3-72 months) and the mean weight was (12 ± 8) kg (range: 3.4-46.0 kg). The underlying diagnoses were pulmonary sling in 33 patients, double aortic arch in 3, tetrology of Fallot in 6, ventricular septal defect in 4, double outlet right ventricle in 1, and pulmonary atresia in 1 patient. Among them, short tracheal stenosis was present in 15, long tracheal stenosis in 25 and bridging bronchus in 8 patients. Repairs with autogenous tracheal tissue were performed in 6, and end-to-end anastomosis in 11 and slide tracheoplasty in 31 patients. Two patients had granulation tissue growing in the airway postoperatively and were re-operated by autogenous rib tissue. All of patients were followed up after operation 1, 3, 6, 12 months and if the patient had symptoms that should be examined by bronchoscopy. The patients should be examined by CT post-operation one year.

RESULTSThere were 7 deaths in all 48 cases and the early mortality was 14.6%. Two deaths were not related to tracheal stenosis, and other 5 were associated with long segment tracheal stenosis. Forty-one patients were followed for 2 months to 6 years, and no patients required re-operations. Clinical symptoms of tracheal stenosis disappeared and the results of CT scan were satisfied.

CONCLUSIONSOne stage surgical repair of the patients with congenital heart diseases and tracheal stenosis have a good effect. Slide tracheoplasty is the effective surgical method for long segment tracheal stenosis. Postoperative granulation tissue growing in the airway is the leading cause of death.

Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Heart Defects, Congenital ; complications ; surgery ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Tracheal Stenosis ; complications ; surgery

Long-segment tracheal stenosis in infants and small children is difficult to manage and can be life-threatening. A retrospective review of 12 patients who underwent surgery for congenital tracheal stenosis between 1996 and 2004 was conducted. The patients' median age was 3.6 months. All patients had diffuse tracheal stenosis involving 40-61% (median, 50%) of the length of the trachea, which was suspected to be associated with complete tracheal ring. Five patients had proximal bronchial stenosis also. Ten patients had associated cardiac anomalies. Three different techniques were performed; pericardial patch tracheoplasty (n=4), tracheal autograft tracheoplasty (n=6), and slide tracheoplasty (n=2). After pericardial tracheoplasty, there were 2 early and 2 late deaths. All patients survived after autograft and slide tracheoplasty except one who died of pneumonia one year after the autograft tracheoplasty. The duration of ventilator support was 6-40 days after autograft and 6-7 days after slide tracheoplasty. The duration of hospital stay was 13-266 days after autograft and 19-21 days after slide tracheoplasty. Repeated bronchoscopic examinations were required after pericardial and autograft tracheoplasty. These data demonstrate that pericardial patch tracheoplasty show poor results, whereas autograft or slide tracheoplasty gives excellent short- and long-term results.
Body Weight ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Length of Stay ; Male ; Pulmonary Artery/pathology ; Respiratory System Abnormalities/surgery ; Thoracic Surgical Procedures ; Trachea/anatomy & histology ; Tracheal Stenosis/*congenital/*surgery ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVETo discuss the diagnosis and surgical treatment of congenital vascular ring and prognostic factors.

METHODSThe clinic data of 42 cases of congenital vascular from January 2010 to December 2013 was analyzed retrospectively (accounting for 1.04% congenital heart operations over the same period ). There were 26 male and 16 female patients, aged at surgery 24 days to 6 years (average 10.7 months). The diagnosis including pulmonary artery sling in 26 cases, double aortic arch in 10 cases, right aortic arch with aberrant left subclavian artery in 3 cases, pulmonary artery sling and right aortic arch with vagus left subclavian artery in 2 cases, pulmonary artery sling and left aortic arch with vagus right subclavian artery in 1 case. In addition to 4 cases the remaining 38 patients were still combined with other cardiovascular malformations. Thirty-six cases of children underwent spiral CT airway remodeling, 23 children underwent fiber- bronchoscopy. In addition to 2 cases of airway abnormalities not seen, the rest of the children were present in varying degrees in different parts of tracheal stenosis or tracheomalacia. All patients underwent surgical correction of congenital vascular ring, concomitant heart deformity correction surgery according to the situation (7 cases of atrial septal defect repair, 3 of ventricular septal defect repair, 1 of mitral valvuloplasty, 1 of bi-Glenn, 1 of coarctation of the aorta correction with ventricular septal defect repair, 1 of trilogy of Fallot correction). One case suffered resection of tracheal stenosis and Slide tracheoplasty simultaneously, another case was implanted tracheal stenting postoperatively after pulmonary artery sling correction.

RESULTSThree patients died in hospital (7.1%), the cause of death were recurrent granuloma formation postoperatively. Remaining 39 patients were successfully discharged. The median time of overall survival of children with mechanical ventilation was 14 h (22 h) (M (Q(R))), median ICU residence time was 5 d (8 d), and the median in-hospital time was 19 d (9 d). Tracheal intubation time and postoperative ICU duration time in children with pulmonary artery sling children were much more than in children with double aortic arch (23 h (123 h) vs. 9 h(9 h), 7 d (13 d) vs. 4 d (2 d)), but the difference were not statistically significant. There was significant difference in the duration of hospitalization between the patient with the pulmonary artery sling and double aortic arch (23 d (9 d) vs. 16 d(6 d)) (χ(2) = 10.157, P = 0.006).

CONCLUSIONSThe recent results of surgical treatment of congenital vascular ring is safe and effective. The extent and scope of tracheal stenosis and tracheomalacia is a critical influence prognosis.

Aorta ; abnormalities ; Aorta, Thoracic ; abnormalities ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Heart Defects, Congenital ; surgery ; Heart Septal Defects, Ventricular ; surgery ; Heart Ventricles ; abnormalities ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Prognosis ; Pulmonary Artery ; abnormalities ; Retrospective Studies ; Tomography, Spiral Computed ; Trachea ; surgery ; Tracheal Stenosis ; surgery ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVETo explore the diagnostic and therapeutic methods for perioperative children with congenital heart disease (CHD) with airway stenosis in pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

METHODFiberoptic bronchoscopy was used for the diagnosis of 100 CHD cases in PICU who were clinically considered to have possible airway malformation because of complicated difficult-to-control lung infection, atelectasis and failure with the ventilator after surgery from January 2010 to October 2011. Cases who were confirmed to have severe airway stenosis by bronchoscopy and weaning from the ventilator after surgery were treated with balloon expandable stents into the desired position in the bronchoscopy.

RESULTThere were 73 cases (73%) of CHD patients with airway abnormalities, including 31 cases of severe stenosis (31%), moderate stenosis in 29 cases (29%), mild stenosis in 13 cases (13%). Nine of the 10 children in whom the mechanical ventilation was hard to be stopped after surgery because of severe airway stenosis were weaned from mechanical ventilation successfully by fiberoptic bronchoscopy, while one case died from primary disease with severe sepsis after the placement of bronchial stents.

CONCLUSIONCHD children with difficult-to-control lung infection, atelectasis and failure with ventilator after surgery are often complicated with airway abnormalities. The therapeutic bronchoscopy with airway stent can be used for cases with weaning from the ventilator because of severe airway stenosis.

Airway Obstruction ; diagnosis ; etiology ; therapy ; Bronchoscopy ; methods ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Heart Defects, Congenital ; complications ; diagnosis ; surgery ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Intensive Care Units, Pediatric ; Lung Diseases ; diagnosis ; etiology ; therapy ; Male ; Perioperative Period ; Respiration, Artificial ; Stents ; Trachea ; abnormalities ; Tracheal Stenosis ; diagnosis ; etiology ; therapy ; Treatment Outcome