Cardiac Biomarkers Associated With Hospital Length of Stay After Pediatric Congenital Heart Surgery.

BACKGROUND: Prolonged hospital length of stay after congenital heart surgery is a significant cost burden and is associated with postoperative morbidity. Our goal was to evaluate the association between pre- and postoperative biomarker levels and in-hospital length of stay for children after congenital heart surgery. METHODS: We enrolled patients <18 years of age who underwent at least 1 congenital heart operation at Johns Hopkins Hospital from 2010 to 2014. Blood samples were collected before the index operation and at the end of the bypass. ST2 and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) measurements were evaluated as log-transformed, median, and tercile cut-points. We evaluated the association between pre- and postoperative NT-proBNP and ST2 measurements with in-hospital postoperative length of stay using multivariate logistic regression. We adjusted for covariates used in The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Mortality Risk Model. RESULTS: In our cohort 45% of our patients had an in-hospital postoperative length of stay longer than the median. Before adjustment preoperative NT-proBNP above the population median and the highest tercile exhibited a significantly longer in-hospital length of stay. After adjustment for covariates in the risk model, pre- and postoperative ST2 and NT-proBNP demonstrated a significantly longer length of stay. CONCLUSIONS: Perioperative ST2 and NT-proBNP had a significant association with increased postoperative in-hospital length of stay before and after adjustment. ST2 in particular could be used to guide an earlier assessment of patient risk for complications that may lead to adverse outcomes.