Babies who have life-saving surgery for congenital heart problems within the first month of life face a lifelong risk of chronic kidney disease and high blood pressure, according to new research led by University of Alberta pediatric specialists.
“We know that kidneys, like all organs, have to last a lifetime,” said Catherine Morgan, associate professor and interim divisional director of pediatric nephrology in the U of A’s Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. “Most children who have had cardiac surgery as neonates will survive and are going to live a long time, so we need to look at what associated kidney damage during this critical time might mean for them throughout their lives.”
“The numbers were quite significant and worrying, and really important for us in terms of thinking about followup,” Morgan said.
The researchers examined 58 six-year-old cardiac surgery survivors at Edmonton’s Stollery Children’s Hospital and the Montreal Children’s Hospital. Seventeen per cent of the children were found to have chronic kidney disease, compared with two per cent of the general pediatric population in Canada. Thirty per cent of the survivors had high blood pressure, compared with less than one per cent overall.
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Image via Richard Siemens.