Critical Congenital Heart Disease Sadly Diagnosed at Autopsy in Calabar, South-South Nigeria

Abstract

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common type of birth defect causing more deaths in the first year of life than any other birth defect. Medical practice in a third-world country is faced with numerous challenges, created by poor health facilities and the unavailability of basic imaging studies at the community level where the majority of the poor resides. We present a case series of 4 neonates with a ratio of 1: 3 admitted into the neonatology unit of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Nigeria. Two of the patients were delivered at home by a traditional birth attendant via spontaneous vertex delivery and the rest two were booked cases in a private and obstetric unit of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital. Their age ranged were 18 hours to 27 days of life and their common presentation were poor sucking, difficulty in breathing, central cyanosis and failure to thrive. A fetal echocardiogram was carried out for one of the cases and there was strong clinical suspicion of congenital heart disease but the precise type is unknown. The other three could not afford the necessary investigations required. They were all oxygen-dependent till death. Pathologic-anatomic findings showed a rare Critical congenital heart defect of the univentricular heart chamber of various types for the three cases and a case of TGA. The Immediate cause of death for all four cases was congestive cardiac failure.