Interventional catheterization in pediatric catheterization laboratories for congenital and structural heart defects during 2009–2018 in Poland. Report of the National Consultant of Pediatric Cardiology

Over the last 20 years interventional catheterization has become the procedure of choice for the treatment of several congenital and structural heart defects (CHD). Published data of the activities of pediatric catheterization laboratories (cath labs) in Poland are limited [1–4].
A National Consultant of Pediatric Cardiology (JB) for several years has collected data from all pediatric cath labs in Poland regarding their activities. They included details of interventional procedures performed in CHD in children and adults.
There are 10 pediatric cath-lab centers in Poland (all with a department of pediatric cardiac surgery) – two in Warsaw (Instytut Pomnik Centrum Zdrowia Dziecka – CZD and Warsaw Medical Iniversity – WUM), two in Gdansk (Uniwersyteckie Centrum Kliniczne – UCK and PCT Hospital), and a single one in: Lodz – Instytut Pomnik Centrum Zdrowia Matki Polki (CZMP); Poznan – Uniwersytet Medyczny (UM); Katowice – Górnośląskie Centrum Zdrowia Dziecka (GCZD); Wroclaw – Wojewódzki Szpital Specjalistyczny (WSS); Krakow – Uniwersytecki Szpital Dziecięcy (USD) and Zabrze – Śląskie Centrum Chorób Serca (SCCS). All of them reported their activities yearly from 2009 to 2018 except 2 centers; one in Katowice and another one in Gdansk (PTC) which started working in 2011. There are currently 14 operators of pediatric cath labs in Poland – most of them more than 50 years old (yo).
There were 17 054 interventional catheterizations in CHD reported in the period 2009-2018 including 2080 (12.2 %) procedures conducted in adult patients (> 18 yo) – Table I. The latter procedures were performed generally in 4 cath labs: SCCS Zabrze, UCK Gdansk, WSS Wroclaw and CZMP Lodz. The number of CHD surgical operations (in children and adults) were collected from 10 units mentioned above (having specific Pediatric cath labs) in the Polish Cardiac Surgery Registry (KROK Report – Rejestr Operacji Kardiochirurgicznych w Polsce). They reported 93.5% of all surgical procedures performed in CHD in Poland.
The numbers of interventional procedures vs. surgical operations in CHD during the period 2009–2018 are presented in Figure 1 A. It is clear that the number of interventional catheterizations has consistently increased during that time whereas surgical procedures have remained constant. It is important to state that the number of surgical and interventional procedures in the year 2018 were similar (2293 vs. 2271). Obviously the surgical procedures were different...


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