Temporal Trends in Survival Among Infants With Critical Congenital Heart Defects

To evaluate the trends in survival for infants with critical congenital heart defects (CCHDs) and to examine the potential impact of timing of diagnosis and other prognostic factors on survival.

We performed a retrospective population-based cohort study in infants born with structural congenital heart defects (CHDs) between 1979 and 2005 and ascertained by the Metropolitan Atlanta Congenital Defects Program. We estimated Kaplan-Meier survival probabilities for 12 CCHD phenotypes by birth era and timing of diagnosis among infants without noncardiac defects or chromosomal disorders and used stratified Cox proportional hazards models to assess potential prognostic factors.