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Ann Thorac Surg 2000;70:581
© 2000 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

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Invited commentary

Invited commentary

^a Department of Neurology, Children’s Hospital, CA–503, Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA,

e-mail: bellinger@al.tch.harvard.edu

Invited commentary

The results of this study by Dr Sharma and colleagues raise several important points regarding the potential neurological impacts of interventions used to repair congenital heart defects in children. First, they add to the substantial evidence that subtle neurological and cognitive dysfunctions may be evident even among children in whom cardiac repair is completely successful from a strictly medical standpoint.

Second, the results suggest that supporting vital organs using total circulatory arrest did not confer any additional risk beyond that associated with experiencing cardiopulmonary bypass (at least for arrest periods that ranged up to 69 minutes and averaged 27 minutes). This conclusion is based on the finding that neurologic status and global cognitive function (an IQ-like score) were equivalent among children for whom . . . [Full Text of this Article]