Congenital diaphragmatic hernia in newborns

Abstract

With the aim of becoming acquainted with some characteristics of newborns as bearers of congenital diaphragmatic hernia (HDC), to determine lethality on the basis of surgical intervention (SI) timing, and predict the survival of this patients according the relation between the PaCO₂ and the IVM at the moment of the surgery, 38 neonates hospitalized in the Neonatology Unit of Guillermo Grant Benavente Hospital have been retrospectively studied. Surgery was perfomed en thirty neonates. Thirteen of them were operated before 24 hours of birth, death occuring in 61,5% of them. The remaining seventeen were operated as soon as their hemodynamics and breathing had been stabilized. Death occurring in 41,2%. Upon surgery, seventeen neonates were placed in square B of Bohns diagram obtaining a 70,5% survival rate; four neonates in square A with 50% survival and six in square C with 100% mortality. The mortality in our series was 60,5%. These data suggests that the survival rate could be greater in neonates whose hemodynamics and breathing had been previously stabilized. The optimun timing for surgical intervention should be as soon as they had been placed in Bohns square B.