Postnatal Outcomes of Children with Prenatally Diagnosed Congenital Heart Disease Combined with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia

Abstract The primary aim of this study was to determine the predictive value of prenatal ultrasound and echocardiography for prognosis in congenital heart disease (CHD) with coexisting diaphragmatic hernia (DH) in a tertiary care center. Eleven records from the database of the Department for Diagnoses and Prevention of Congenital Malformations, Polish Mother’s Memorial Hospital Research Institute, were reviewed. The mean maternal age was 29,2 ± 5,1 years, and the mean gestational age at the time of diagnosis was 28,4 ± 6,7 weeks. No information was available for children discharged from hospital. Data of eight cases of prenatal DH and complex heart disease from the literature were also analyzed. Three fetuses survived the neonatal period. In each of these, CHD was other than the urgent or critical type, defined as not requiring cardiac surgical intervention in the first day or month of life. Both sets of data collected from our center and the published literature confirmed the unfavorable prognosis for fetuses with severe or critical CHD with coexisting DH.