Cognitive development of children following early repair of transposition of the great arteries using deep hypothermic circulatory arrest.

Twenty-eight children who underwent corrective cardiac surgery in early infancy had developmental evaluations to explore whether cardiopulmonary bypass perfusion variables are associated with later cognitive function. All had transposition of the great arteries repaired by the arterial switch operation using deep hypothermic circulatory arrest. The mean duration of deep hypothermic circulatory arrest was 64 +/- 10 minutes (mean +/- SD). Median age at repair was 4 days (range 1 to 125 days). Tests of development were administered at age 7 to 53 months: Bayley Scales for children younger than 30 months of age (n = 18) and McCarthy Scales for older children (n = 10). Overall cognitive development score was 101.2 +/- 11.1. Duration of deep hypothermic circulatory arrest was not associated with performance. However, for core cooling periods of less than 20 minutes' duration, shorter cooling periods were associated with lower scores (r = .85, n = 11, P less than .001). These data suggest that patients undergoing relatively long periods of deep hypothermic circulatory arrest may require some minimum time of cardiopulmonary bypass cooling to avoid central nervous system injury.