The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database: 2019 Update on Outcomes and Quality

Abstract

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database is a comprehensive clinical outcomes registry that captures almost all pediatric cardiac surgical operations in the United States. It is the platform for all activities of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons related to the analysis of outcomes and the improvement of quality in this subspecialty. This report summarizes current aggregate national outcomes in congenital and pediatric cardiac surgery and reviews related activities in the areas of quality measurement, performance improvement, and transparency. The reported data about aggregate national outcomes are exemplified by an analysis of 10 benchmark operation groups performed from January 2014 to December 2017. This analysis documents the overall aggregate Operative Mortality for operations performed at North American participants in The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database and the interquartile range (IQR) for participant-specific rates of Operative Mortality for the following procedural groups: off-bypass coarctation repair, 1.5% (IQR, 0.0% to 1.4%); ventricular septal defect repair, 0.5% (IQR, 0.0% to 0.5%); tetralogy of Fallot repair, 1.3% (IQR, 0.0% to 2.0%); complete atrioventricular canal repair, 2.5% (IQR, 0.0% to 4.1%); arterial switch operation, 2.2% (IQR, 0.0% to 3.0%); arterial switch operation and ventricular septal defect repair, 4.6% (IQR, 0.0% to 7.1%); Glenn/hemiFontan, 1.8% (IQR, 0.0% to 2.7%); Fontan operation, 1.0% (IQR, 0.0% to 0.4%); truncus arteriosus repair, 9.5% (IQR, 0.0% to 15.4%); and Norwood (stage 1) operation, 15.0% (IQR, 8.3% to 25.0%).