European journal of cardio-thoracic surgery : official journal of the European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery
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The aims of this study were to identify independent risk factors for mortality following paediatric open-heart surgery and to develop risk models for use in clinical audit based on identified risk factors. The study also tests the validity of the recently proposed Risk Adjustment in Congenital Heart Surgery (RACHS-1) method of risk stratification as applied to open-heart operations. ⋯ This study identifies age at operation, RACHS-1 risk category and bypass time as highly significant risk factors for mortality after paediatric open-heart surgery. It validates the RACHS-1 risk stratification method as applied to the subset of open-heart surgery, whilst accepting the limitations of such a system. The risk models formulated permit risk prediction and allow for analysis of surgical results. Such risk-adjustment is important when assessing performance and comparing outcomes amongst individuals or institutions.
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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg · Jul 2004
Editorial CommentQuality evaluation in congenital heart surgery.