Outpatient pediatric cardiology consultations in a tertiary academic hospital

Abstract

Objectives: Cardiac diseases in the pediatric population can be congenital or acquired. If the diagnosis and treatment are early, the chance for survival increases. Thus, this study aimed to determine the indications for pediatric cardiology consultations in a single tertiary hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Materials and methods: This study was conducted in 2020-2021 at a tertiary center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Patients younger than 14 years of age who were referred by outpatient clinics or those who presented to the emergency department and needed outpatient cardiac evaluation were included in this study. Inpatient referrals were excluded. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 21 was used for statistical analyses.

Results: A total of 416 referred patients were included in this study. New patients accounted for 74% of the referrals, while known patients accounted for 26%. The median age was 2.728 years, with 56.3% being male participants. The three most common reasons for referral were: evaluation of cardiac function (21.6%), follow-up evaluation of fetal/neonatal diagnosis (19.5%), and heart murmurs (16.8%).

Conclusion: Most of the referrals were new patients. Of those who underwent echocardiography, 48.2% had abnormal results. We recommend further studies to help guide the direction of the residents' education and to provide better patient healthcare services.

Keywords: Consultations; outpatient; pediatric cardiology.