Document Type

Poster

Associated Faculty

Dr. Valerie Herbert

Sponsoring Academic Department

School of Nursing

Publication Date

2024

Abstract/ Summary

Congenital heart defects, abbreviated CHDs, are a leading cause of infant mortality within the first year of life. Recently, there has been a surge in research surrounding this issue. This research has proven that certain actions can be performed to improve infant mortality related to CHD, specifically how a prenatal diagnosis can increase the survival rate of infants affected. This posed the topic question of this research project, for newborns with congenital heart defects, how does a diagnosis in utero compared with a postnatal diagnosis decrease the risk of infant mortality within the first year of life? Using PubMed and CINAHL databases, a literature search utilizing the following keywords: congenital heart defects, infant mortality, prenatal, screening, detection, and diagnosis was performed. Many of these searches included the Boolean phrase ‘AND’ to combine keywords. The inclusion criteria for this search incorporated articles relating to prenatal screening, diagnosis, management, outcomes, detection, CHD-related mortality, and articles within the range of 2019-2024. Exclusion criteria involved articles aimed around the causes of CHDs, and infant mortality due to causes not related to CHD. Eleven articles were included based on the guidelines previously mentioned. Recommendations from the literature for a proposed change include various prenatal screening methods such as, ultrasound, echocardiograms, pulse oximetry, and fetal EKGs. Literature also proposed limitations such as sonographer competence. A review of the literature demonstrated that a prenatal diagnosis of CHDs decreases infant mortality within the first year of life.

Version

pre-print (i.e. pre-refereeing)

Additional Files
Abstract_Congenital Heart Defects.pdf (129 kB)
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