Incidence of congenital heart disease among neonates in a neonatal unit of a tertiary care hospital

Objectives: to determine the incidence and pattern of various congenital heart disease in a neonatal unit of a tertiary care hospital. methods: the prospective study was carried out in the neonatal unit of combined military hospital, rawalpindi, from september 2008 to august 2011. all 5800 neonates admitted with gestational age of >28 weeks irrespective of birthweight were included in the study. neonatologist/paediatrician carried out the neonatal examination during the first 12 hours of life. neonates suspected of having congenital heart disease were further evaluated by pulse oxymetry, x-ray chest and echocardiography to ascertain final diagnosis and type of lesion. data was collected on a predesigned proforma containing information regarding gender, mode of delivery, gestational age, weight at birth, family history, and associated malformations. spss 16 was used for statistical analysis. results: of the 5800 neonates, 87 (1.5%) were found to have congenital heart disease with an incidence of 15/1000. there was a male preponderance. most common lesion was ventricular septal defect 27(31.3%), followed by atrial septal defect 20 (22.9%), patent ductus arteriosus 13 (14.94%), tetralogy of fallot 06 (6.89%), transposition of great arteries 04 (4.59%), pulmonary stenosis 05 (5.79%) and 03(3.44%) had atrioventricular canal defects. conclusion: congenital heart disease is a common congenital anomaly. its incidence varies from centre to centre due to different factors like nature of the sample, method of detection and early examination by a neonatologist/ paediatrician. in this study a higher incidence is reported because it was carried out in a tertiary care unit, which is a referral hospital and all the neonates admitted in the unit were included in the study