Heart murmur as reason for admission to a Neonatal Unit: A 5-year experience

Abstract

Objective: To describe epidemiological and clinical characteristics and evolution of patients with heart murmurs detected in the neonatal period.
Material and methods: Descriptive and retrospective study of newborns with heart murmur diagnosed in “Hospital de Cabueñes” from 2003 to 2007.
Results: We included 148 patients, with a median gestational age of 39 weeks. The 94,6% were admitted from delivery room or obstetrics unit, with a mean age of 1,91 days. During the admission electrocardiogram was made in 99,3% patients, chest radiography (95,9%), echocardiography (95,3%) and arterial gasometry (91,2%). The septal defects (ASD or VSD) were the most frequent anomalies (75 cases, 50,6%). The echocardiography was normal in 54 cases (36,5%). The mean of stay in our hospital was 4,11 days. The prognosis was benign and we don´t register deaths. Four patients needed to be transferred to a reference hospital, and another four patients were referred for surgery in their first years of life.
Conclusions: The incidence of heart murmur as clinical sign in the neonatal period in our hospital is 13,81 cases for 1.000 newborns. Minor defects (mainly septal defects) were found in most patients and echocardiography was normal in an important number of patients (36,5%)