In-hospital interstage improves interstage survival after the Norwood stage 1 operation

OBJECTIVES The interstage mortality rate after a Norwood stage 1 operation remains 12–20% in current series. In-hospital interstage facilitates escalation of care, possibly improving outcome. METHODS A retrospective study was designed for hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) and HLHS variants, offering an in-hospital stay after the Norwood operation until the completion of stage 2. Daily and weekly examinations were conducted systematically, including two-dimensional and speckle-tracking echocardiography. Primary end points included aggregate survival until the completion of stage 2 and interstage freedom from escalation of care. Moreover, we calculated the sensitivity and specificity of speckle-tracking echocardiographic myocardial deformation in predicting death/transplant after the Norwood procedure. RESULTS Between 2015 and 2019, 33 neonates with HLHS (24) or HLHS variants (9) underwent Norwood stage 1 (31) or hybrid palliation followed by a comprehensive stage 2 operation (2). Stage 1 Norwood–Sano was preferred in 18 (54.5%) neonates; the classic Norwood with Blalock–Taussig shunt was performed in 13 (39.4%) neonates. The Norwood stage 1 30-day mortality rate was 6.2%. The in-hospital interstage strategy was implemented after Norwood stage 1 with a 3.4% interstage mortality rate. The aggregate Norwood stage 1 and interstage Kaplan–Meier survival rate was 90.6 ± 5.2%. Escalation of care was necessary for 5 (17.2%) patients at 2.5 ± 1.2 months during the interstage for compromising atrial arrhythmias (2), Sano-shunt stenosis (1) and pneumonia requiring a high-frequency oscillator (2); there were no deaths. A bidirectional Glenn (25) or a comprehensive-Norwood stage 2 (2) was completed in 27 patients at 4.7 ± 1.2 months with a 92.6% survival rate. The overall Kaplan–Meier survival rate is 80.9 ± 7.0% at 4.3 years (mean 25.3 ± 15.7 months). An 8.7% Δ longitudinal strain 30 days after Norwood stage 1 had 100% sensitivity and 81% specificity for death/transplant. CONCLUSIONS In-hospital interstage facilitates escalation of care, which seems efficacious in reducing interstage Norwood deaths. A significant reduction of longitudinal strain after Norwood stage 1 is a strong predictor of poor outcome.