congenital heart disease and covid-19: a single-center experience

Background: coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) has been infecting children since december 2019 and has caused a severe epidemic and millions of deaths worldwide. covid-19 has severe clinical effects and is more complicated to manage in patients with underlying diseases, such as congenital heart disease (chd), past surgical operations, arrhythmia, and end-organ damage. objectives: this study aimed to evaluate the clinical course, follow-up, and treatment process of patients with chd and covid-19 in inonu university faculty of medicine, department of pediatrics, turkey during march 2020-february 2021. methods: this retrospective study was performed on patients with chd and covid-19 in the department of pediatrics at inonu university faculty of medicine during march 2020-february 2021, selected by making full count sampling. admission complaints, clinical findings, biochemical parameters, echocardiography results, hospitalization times, treatments, and clinical follow-up findings were retrieved from patients’ files. results: 11 patients with underlying chd and covid-19 were evaluated retrospectively during the study. ten patients were hospitalized and treated due to covid-19. treatment of seven of these patients continued in the intensive care unit (icu), and five were followed up under a mechanical ventilator. two patients died during follow-up in the icu. conclusions: the clinical course of covid-19 is severe, and the mortality rate is high in patients with serious diseases, such as underlying chd. therefore, covid-19 in patients with chd requires more serious and careful follow-up.