INFLAMMATORY REACTIONS FOLLOWING HOMOGRAFT INSERTION IN CHILDREN WITHCONGENITAL HEART-DISEASE

A study was carried out to assess significant short-term postoperative complications in children undergoing valved homograft surgery for con genital heart defects. Clinical and laboratory parameters of 50 patien ts undergoing this type of surgery were compared with those of 50 rand omly selected but age-matched controls in whom open-heart surgery was performed without a homograft. Extracorporeal circulation, aortic clam ping and intensive care times and the duration of febrile response wer e significantly longer in the study patients than in the controls (eac h p < 0.0001). In laboratory data the only significant difference betw een the two groups was in the C-reactive protein response, which was h igh in the study group (p < 0.0004) and did not correlate with extraco rporeal circulation time or with positive blood cultures. The prolonge d febrile and acute-phase reactant response following valved homograft surgery is an inflammatory reaction to the foreign antigen.