Retrospective study of neonatal ligation during 2002 in the United Kingdom of persistently patent arterial ducts.

Our aim was to ascertain the number of neonatal ligations of the patent arterial duct performed in the United Kingdom in 2002, and to determine the survival of the neonates after 30 days. A postal questionnaire was sent to the lead paediatician in every hospital in the United Kingdom possessing a special care or neonatal intensive care unit, requesting information on the number of babies referred for ligation of a persistently patent arterial duct. A separate questionnaire was sent to the paediatric cardiothoracic centres for information on babies who underwent the procedure. Cross-referencing the responses identified neonates who were not reported in the separate questionnaires. Additional information was requested from the central cardiac audit database. The overall response rate was 74%, with 172 forms returned of 234 distributed. From the combined responses, we ascertained that ligation has been performed in 244, with survival at 30 days of 94%. There were problems in identifying some babies because of the incomplete nature of the information received from both referring hospitals and specialist cardiothoracic centres. We would recommend a joint prospective study is conducted by paediatricians and paediatric cardiologists to determine the short and long term outcomes in this population known to be at high risk.