Frequency of Congenital Heart Diseases at Benazir Bhutto Hospital Rawalpindi

Background: Patients with congenital heart disease frequently visit pediatrics ward usually with other associated problems. Objective: To find out frequency, various presentations of cardiac defects and short term outcome Study Design: Descriptive study Place and duration of study: Department of Pediatrics Benazir Bhutto Hospital Rawalpindi August 2009-July 2010. Results: A total of 96 patients, aged 0 to 156 months, had confirmed congenital cardiac defects. Male were 64. Three fourth patients presented under 1 year of age. 58.3% had acyanotic and 41.7% had cyanotic congenital heart disease, with ventricular septal defect (VSD-33.3%) and Tetralogy of fallot (TOF-17.7%) commonest among the list. Commonest symptoms were respiratory distress (74%) and fever (66.7%). Mean hospital stay was 6 + 3 days, 68 (70.8%) admitted patients were discharged, 21 (21.9%) expired while 7 patients (7.3%) left against medical advice. Conclusion: CHD mostly presented in infancy. VSD and TOF were the commonest congenital cardiac defects.