ArticleThe Annals of thoracic surgery2023
Procedure-Specific Center Volume and Mortality After Infantile Congenital Heart Surgery.
Article in The Annals of thoracic surgery, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- An updated systematic review of the impact of volume of surgery and specialization in Norwood procedure.BMC pediatrics · 2026Pooled it
- Nationwide Analysis of Surgery and Catheterization Services for Congenital Heart Disease: Regional Disparities and Patient Migration in Korea.Journal of Korean medical science · 2026Article
- Association of Digoxin Use at Norwood Discharge with Fontan Completion: A Study from the Pediatric Heart Network Public Dataset.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Incidence and risk factors of postoperative delirium in children with congenital heart disease.PloS one · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundRegionalization of congenital heart surgery (CHS) has been proposed to improve postsurgical outcomes by increasing experience in the care of high-risk patients. We sought to determine whether procedure-specific center volume was associated with mortality after infantile CHS up to 3 years post-procedure.
methodsWe analyzed data from 12,263 infants in the Pediatric Cardiac Care Consortium undergoing CHS between 1982 and 2003 at 46 centers within the United States. We used logistic regression to assess the association between procedure-specific center volume and mortality from discharge to 3 years post-procedure, accounting for clustering at the center level and adjusting for patient age and weight at surgery, chromosomal abnormality, and surgical era.
resultsWe found decreased odds for in-hospital mortality for Norwood procedures (odds ratio [OR] 0.955, 95% CI 0.935-0.976), arterial switch operations (OR 0.924, 95% CI 0.889-0.961), tetralogy of Fallot repairs (OR 0.975, 95% CI 0.956-0.995), Glenn shunts (OR 0.971, 95% CI 0.943-1.000), and ventricular septal defect closures (OR 0.974, 95% CI 0.964-0.985). The association persisted up to 3 years post-surgery for Norwood procedures (OR 0.971, 95% CI 0.955-0.988), arterial switches (OR 0.929, 95% CI 0.890-0.970), and ventricular septal defect closures (OR 0.986, 95% CI 0.977-0.995); however, after excluding deaths that occurred within the first 90 days of following surgery, we observed no association between center volume and mortality for any of the procedures studied.
conclusionsThese findings suggest that procedure-specific center volume is inversely associated with early postoperative mortality for infantile CHS across the complexity spectrum but has no measurable effect on later mortality.
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