Pediatric Subcommittee

The Pediatric Committee of the ICEBP has been invited to represent pediatric perfusionists on the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Congenital Database Taskforce and the Multi-Societal Database Committee for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease.  This relationship has led to the Pediatric Committee’s involvement and contribution to the development of a complete list of uniform and standard definitions for complications secondary to congenital heart surgery.  The Pediatric Committee has been asked to focus on the complications associated with cardiopulmonary bypass, extracorporeal life support, and ventricular assist devices.  These definitions will allow for a standardized technique for measuring operative and postoperative complications, and create the tools necessary to measure, study, and quantify morbidity secondary to congenital heart surgery.  The results of this project will be published and provide useful tools for multi-institutional research and outcomes analysis.

Update! (May 2010)

The Pediatric Subcommittee has continued to develop and support its collaborative relationship with the STS Congenital Database Taskforce, Multi-Societal Database Committee for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease (MSDCPCHD), and the AmSECT Pediatric Committee. In 2009, the ICEBP Pediatric Subcommittee, in collaboration with the AmSECT Pediatric Committee, developed new variables and definitions for the 2010 Update (version 3.0) of the STS Congenital Database that focuses on the practice of congenital and pediatric perfusion. A list of new variables and definitions was accepted for inclusion by the STS Congenital Database Taskforce. A manuscript describing the process and resulting variables and definitions is in press at the World Journal for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery (WJPCHS). A print version will be in the inaugural edition of the WJPCHS in April.

We have worked with the editor of this journal to offer free online-access to this article. Anyone can register for free online access to Volumes 1-3 of WJPCHS at the following URL:

http://www.sagepub.com/journalsProdDesc.nav?prodId=Journal201975. 

Through the strength of the STS Congenital Database (over 90 participating congenital heart surgery centers) we hope to identify associations between congenital perfusion practice and patient outcome.

An editorial on this subject will be published in a forthcoming issue of JECT in 2010.