Aims: To examine determinants of access to treatment, outcomes and hospital utilization in patients undergoing secundum atrial septal defect (ASD) closure in adulthood in England and Wales.
Methods and results: Large retrospective cohort study of all adult patients undergoing secundum ASD closures in England and Wales between 2000/01 and 2016/17. Data were from population-based official data sets covering congenital heart disease procedures, hospital episodes and death registries.Out of 6 541 index closures, 79.4% were transcatheter (median age 47 years, IQR 34-61) and 20.6% were surgical (40 years, 28-52). The study cohort was predominantly female (66%), with socio-ethnic profile similar to the general population.Mortality in hospital was 0.2% and at one year 1.0% (95%CI 0.8%-1.2%). Risk of death was lower for transcatheter repairs, adjusting for age, sex, year of procedure, comorbidities and cardiac risk factors (in-hospital adjusted-OR 0.09, 95%CI 0.02-0.46, one-year adjusted-HR 0.5, 0.3-0.9). There was excess mortality one year after ASD closure compared to matched population data.Median (IQR) peri-procedural length of stay was 1.8 (1.4-2.5) and 7.3 (6.2-9.2) days for transcatheter and surgical closures, respectively. Hospital resource use for cardiac reasons started the year before repair (median 2 inpatient and 2 outpatient-only days) and decreased post-repair (zero inpatient and one outpatient days during the first two years).
Conclusion: This national study confirms that ASD closure in adults, by surgical or transcatheter methods, is provided independently of ethnic or socioeconomic differences, it is low (but not no) risk and appears to reduce future cardiac hospitalisation even in older ages.
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology.