Evaluation of congenital heart diseases in Syrian refugee children applying to Çukurova University Faculty of medicine between january 2018 and december 2019

Aim: Congenital heart diseases are one of the most common congenital anomalies. An increase in the number of Syrian immigrants is inevitable in our country in the last 10 years, and the number of Syrian patients who applied to our clinic has increased due to the region where our center is located. In our study, it was aimed to examine the admission forms, disease types and severity, follow-up and treatment results of Syrian pediatric patients with congenital heart disease who applied to Çukurova University Balcalı Hospital Pediatric Cardiology Department in the last 2 years before the pandemic, and to draw attention to the problems encountered by both the patient and the physician. Materials and Methods: 561 Syrian patients with congenital heart disease who applied to Çukurova University Balcalı Hospital Pediatric Cardiology Outpatient Clinic between January 2018 and December 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. The demographic characteristics of the patients, admission forms, clinical findings, diagnoses, complications after surgical treatment, surgical treatment types and mortality, and congenital heart disease type were examined. In order to evaluate the severity/complexity of congenital heart disease, anomalies were divided into 4 different categories according to follow-up and treatment modalities. Results: Of the 561 patients admitted between January 2018 and December 2019, 243 (% 43,3) had cyanotic, 240 (% 42,8) acyanotic, 78 (% 13,9) obstructive congenital heart anomalies. In order of frequency, the first three anomalies were ventricular septal defect (% 25,1), tetralogy of Fallot (% 21,4), and pulmonary stenosis (% 10,9). % 49,38 of the patients had growth retardation, % 53,5 had heart failure, % 20,1 had pulmonary hypertension. % 99,3 of the patients had congenital heart diseases that required a single or more than one intervention (transcatheter/surgery). Transcatheter treatment was applied to 90 (% 16) patients. Of the 340 patients who underwent surgical treatment, 23 (% 6,7) patients underwent palliative surgery, 302 patients (% 88,8) underwent complete correction, 12 patients (% 3,5) underwent complete correction after palliative surgery. The mortality rate after surgical treatment was % 7,9. Of the patients, 466 (% 83) were followed up, 95 (% 17) were not followed up. Conclusion: In conclusion, our findings showed that the majority of Syrian children with congenital heart disease had growth retardation, were referred late, and therefore, the majority of them were complicated by conditions such as heart failure, pulmonary hypertension and became risky for intervention/surgery, the rate of prenatal diagnosis was significantly low, and the rate of no follow-up was high. The accumulation of refugee patients in certain centers is also an important problem in our country. In our study, we wanted to draw attention to the need for regulations by health authorities on the management of refugee CHD's.