Objective:

To determine the frequency and type of pleuropulmonary complications and their predictors in the first thirty postoperative days of patients undergoing surgery without cardiopulmonary bypass.

Methods:

A retrospective cohort study was carried out between January 2013 and December 2014. It included all patients with congenital heart disease who underwent cardiac surgery using a sternal or thoracic approach, without cardiopulmonary bypass with a registered admission to a Neonatal or Paediatric Intensive Care. The frequency of events of pleuropulmonary complications and logistic regression analysis was performed, and the adjusted odds ratio (OR) and confidence intervals at 95% (95% CI) were calculated.

Results:

A total of 139 patients were included. The frequency of pleuropulmonary complications was 42.4% (N = 59), and the most frequent types were atelectasis (28 events), ventilator-associated pneumonia (24 events), pneumothorax (20 events), with more than one complication per patient occasionally being found. Significant risk factors were cyanogenic congenital heart disease (OR = 3.58, 95% CI: 1.10-7.50, P =.001), thoracotomy approach (OR = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.18-1.12, P = .008), and an emergency surgical event (OR = 3.46, 95% CI: 1.51-7.95, P = .002).

Conclusions:

The main pleuropulmonary complication was atelectasis, which is consistent with that reported in the international literature. Patients with any of the predictors identified in the present study should be closely monitored in order to prevent, detect and/or treat pleuropulmonary complications in a timely manner after cardiac surgery.