VSD Surgical Closure in Colombia in Children with Secondary Pulmonary Hypertension. Does Altitude Influence Postoperative Pulmonary Pressure?

A retrospective, cross-sectional, descriptive, observational study was carried out to describe the history of pulmonary hypertension in pediatric patients living at different altitudes following surgical correction of ventricular septal defect. Data from 40 patients who underwent surgery in La Fundacion Cardioinfantil was collected and used for our analysis. Bivariate analysis showed no significant relationship between altitude and pulmonary hypertension after ventricular septal defect closure. Unrelated to the main objective of our study, our investigation revealed that our population underwent surgical correction of VSD at older ages than expected. While previous publications demonstrate the benefit of intervention at 4 years of age or younger (19, 20), the average age in our studied population was found to be 7.8 years old. These patients had unfavorable hemodynamic parameters for ventricular septal defect closure, but our study showed that our patients benefited from surgery with an immediate satisfactory postoperative result. Patients transitioned from parameters indicating severe PH to mild PH within the first 24–48 h after surgery.