THORACIC SEQUELAE AFTER SURGICAL CLOSURE OF THE PATENT DUCTUS-ARTERIOSUS IN PREMATURE-INFANTS

Thirty-six children (median chronological age 6 years 1 month) who had undergone surgical closure of a patent ductus arteriosus through a le ft posterolateral thoracotomy in the neonatal period (median gestation al age 32 weeks) were investigated prospectively with respect to anato mical and functional changes of the chest. At follow-up examination, r esidual or recurrent patent ductus arteriosus was not observed. Three patients had chronic bronchial obstruction. Two patients showed pathol ogical musculoskeletal thoracic sequelae that did not require any trea tment at the time of follow-up: persistence of immediate postoperative left phrenic palsy (n = 1) and thoracic scoliosis (n = 1). Twenty of the 27 patients in whom chest X-ray was performed had minor radiologic al skeletal anomalies in the form of rib deformation or fusion related to the thoracotomy, lesions which have a potential to induce thoracic scoliosis. Left shoulder elevation at chest X-ray and isolated left a rm dysfunction at clinical examination were not observed. Despite the low incidence of scoliosis and the absence of left arm dysfunction obs erved at mid-term follow-up in our series, the incidence of minor rib deformations with a potential to induce severe anomalies such as scoli osis should motivate late follow-up examination at adolescence to defi nitively assess the prevalence of thoracic sequelae after surgical clo sure of the patent ductus arteriosus in premature infants.