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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Cardiovascular Surgery
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2024.1501680

Long-term patient-reported outcomes following congenital heart surgery in adults

Provisionally accepted
Thibault Schaeffer Thibault Schaeffer 1*Pauline Bossers Pauline Bossers 1Doris Kiensmoser Doris Kiensmoser 1Oktay Tutarel Oktay Tutarel 2Paul Philipp Heinisch Paul Philipp Heinisch 1Masamichi Ono Masamichi Ono 1Julie Cleuziou Julie Cleuziou 1Jelena Pabst Von Ohain Jelena Pabst Von Ohain 3Jürgen Hörer Jürgen Hörer 1
  • 1 Department of Congenital and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, German Heart Centre Munich, Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany
  • 2 Department of Congenital Heart Disease and Pediatric Cardiology, German Heart Centre Munich, Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany
  • 3 Department of Congenital and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, Klinikum Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: To investigate the long-term impact of cardiac surgery on quality of life in adults with congenital heart disease (ACHD).Methods: Patients after cardiac surgery for congenital heart disease (CHD) at the age of 18 years or more were recruited in a single-center, cross-sectional study. The enrolled subjects completed online questionnaires to assess patient-reported outcomes: perceived health status and life satisfaction, psychological functioning, health behaviors, and illness perception. Clinical variables were correlated to the score results, and results were compared to representative samples from international and German national surveys of healthy subjects and ACHD patients.Results: We enrolled 196 ACHD patients (54% females), including 55% with more than one cardiac surgery during their lifetime. The median age at the survey was 43 years after a median of 13 years since the last cardiac surgery. Most patients reported improved subjective well-being after the cardiac operation and were in functional NYHA class I or II.The severity of the underlying CHD, number of previous cardiac operations, and beta-blocker medication had the most substantial negative effects on illness perception. Measured quality of life and health-risk behaviors were within the range of values internationally reported for healthy and CHD subjects, respectively.Conclusions: ACHD patients several years after cardiac surgery in adulthood report a subjective improvement in their well-being, a life satisfaction comparable to that of healthy individuals, and low health-risk behaviors. Illness perception strongly correlates with the severity of the underlying CHD.

    Keywords: Adult with congenital heart disease, cardiac surgery, patient-reported outcomes, Quality of Life, illness perception

    Received: 25 Sep 2024; Accepted: 11 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Schaeffer, Bossers, Kiensmoser, Tutarel, Heinisch, Ono, Cleuziou, Pabst Von Ohain and Hörer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Thibault Schaeffer, Department of Congenital and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, German Heart Centre Munich, Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany

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