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Background:  The German Registry for Cardiac Operations and Interventions in Patients with Congenital Heart Disease is a voluntary registry initiated by the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and the German Society for Pediatric Cardiology and Congenital Heart Defects. Since 2012, the registry collects data for the assessment of treatment and outcomes of surgical and interventional procedures in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) of all age groups., Methods:  This real-world, prospective all-comers registry collects clinical and procedural characteristics, adverse events (AEs), mortality, and medium-term outcomes (up to 90 days) of patients undergoing surgical and interventional. A unique pseudonymous personal identifier (PID) allows longitudinal data acquisition in case of further invasive treatment in any participating German heart center. Prior to evaluation, all data sets are monitored for data completeness and integrity. Evaluation includes risk stratification of interventional and surgical procedures and classification of AEs. Each year's data are summarized in annual reports containing detailed information on the entire cohort, all subgroups, and 15 index procedures. In addition, each participating center receives an institutional benchmark report for comparison with the national results. This paper presents a comprehensive summary of the annual report 2021., Results:  In 2021, a total of 5,439 patients were included by 22 participating centers. In total, 3,721 surgical, 3,413 interventional, and 34 hybrid procedures were performed during 6,122 hospital stays. 2,220 cases (36.3%) could be allocated to the 15 index procedures. The mean unadjusted in-hospital mortality ranged from 0.4% among interventional and 2% among surgical cases up to 6.2 % in cases with multiple procedures. In-hospital mortality among index procedures accounted for 2.3% in total cavopulmonary connection, 20.3% in Norwood procedures, and 0.4% following interventional closure of patent ductus arteriosus. For the remaining seven surgical and five interventional index procedures, no in-hospital deaths were recorded. The 10-year longitudinal evaluation of 1,795 patients after tetralogy of Fallot repair revealed repeat interventional or surgical procedures in 21% of the patients. Over the same period, 31.1% of 2,037 patients, following initial treatment of native coarctation, required at least one additional hospital admission, 39.4% after initial interventional, and 21.3% after initial surgical therapy., Conclusion:  The annual report 2021 of the German Registry for Cardiac Operations and Interventions in CHD shows continuously good results in accordance with previous data of the registry. Compared to international registries on CHD, it can be ascertained that in Germany invasive treatment of CHD is offered on a high medical level with excellent quality. The proven fact that patients with various malformations like tetralogy of Fallot and coarctation of the aorta require repeat procedures during follow-up confirms the urgent requirement for longitudinal assessment of all patients presenting with complex lesions., Competing Interests: None declared., (The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).)

Background: The annual report of the German Quality Assurance of Congenital Heart Disease displays a broad overview on outcome of interventional and surgical treatment with respect to patient's age and risk categorization. Particular features of the German all-comers registry are the inclusion of all interventional and surgical procedures, the possibility to record repeated treatments with distinct individual patient assignment, and to record various procedures within one case., Methods: International Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Code terminology for diagnoses and procedures as well as classified adverse events, also recording of demographic data, key procedural performance indicators, and key quality indicators (mortality, adverse event rates). Surgical and interventional adverse events were classified according to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and to the Congenital Heart Disease Adjustment for Risk Method of the congenital cardiac catheterization project on outcomes. Annual analysis of all cases and additional long-term evaluation of patients after repair of Fallot and primary treatment of native coarctation of the aorta were performed., Results: In 2020, 5,532 patients with 6,051 cases (hospital stays) with 6,986 procedures were treated in 23 German institutions. Cases dispense on 618 newborns (10.2%), 1,532 infants (25.3%), 3,077 children (50.9%), and 824 adults (13.6%). Freedom from adverse events was 94.5% in 2,795 interventional cases, 67.9% in 2,887 surgical cases, and 42.9% in 336 cases with multiple procedures (without considering the 33 hybrid interventions). In-hospital mortality was 0.5% in interventional, 1.6% in surgical, and 5.7% in cases with multiple treatments. Long-term observation of 1,632 patient after repair of Fallot depicts the impact of previous palliation in 18% of the patients on the rate of 20.8% redo cases. Differentiated analysis of 1,864 patients with native coarctation picture clear differences of patient, age, and procedure selection and outcome. The overall redo procedure rate in this patient population is high with 30.8%., Conclusion: Improvement in quality of care requires detailed analysis of risks, performance indicators, and outcomes. The high necessity of redo procedures in patients with complex congenital heart disease underlines the imperative need of long-term observations., Competing Interests: None declared., (The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).)

Background: The number of adults with congenital heart disease (ACHD) is steadily increasing. The present cross-sectional study was conceived to investigate ACHD care from the perspective of patients and family practitioners (specialists for general medicine and internal medicine, general practitioners)., Methods: Questionnaire-based cross-sectional study to analyze the real care situation of ACHD in Germany from the perspective of patients and primary care physicians (PCP)., Results: The questionnaire was completed by 4493 ACHD (53.7% female; 41.3 ± 16.9 years) and 1055 PCP. The majority of ACHD (79.8%) visited their PCP for noncardiac health problems but also for cardiac problems. Almost all ACHD had substantial needs for medical consultation (performance, employment etc.). Of the patients 2014 (44.8%) did not know of any certified ACHD specialists or specialized centers and 2816 (62.7%) respondents were not aware of any ACHD patient organization. Of the PCPs 87.5% had cared for ACHD of all severities due to defect-typical residual and resulting symptoms. Many were not aware of any certified ACHD specialists. Only 28.5% consulted an ACHD specialist. Only 23.5% were aware of ACHD patient organizations., Conclusion: General practitioners are a mainstay of ACHD care in Germany. The present study shows that ACHD and their general practitioners are largely uninformed about the specialized care structures available nationwide, despite the high level of need for specialist care. In order to keep the morbidity and mortality of affected patients low, solutions must be elaborated in future to involve and integrate primary care physicians more intensively into the already existing dedicated ACHD care structures, in cooperation with specialized pediatric cardiologists, cardiologists and centers., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature.)

Background: Based on a quality assurance initiative of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (DGTHG) and the German Society for Pediatric Cardiology and Congenital Heart Defects (DGPK), a voluntary registry was founded for assessment of treatment and outcomes of patients with congenital heart disease in Germany. This evaluation by the German Registry for cardiac operations and interventions in patients with congenital heart disease reports the data and the outcome over a 6-year period in patients undergoing invasive treatment., Methods: This real-world database collects clinical characteristics, in-hospital complications, and medium-term outcome of patients who underwent cardiac surgical and interventional procedures within the prospective, all-comers registry. Patients were followed-up for up to 90 days., Results: In the period from 2013 to 2018, a total of 35,730 patients, 39,875 cases, respectively 46,700 procedures were included at up to 31 German institutions. The cases could be subcategorized according to the treatment intention into 21,027 (52.7%) isolated operations, 17,259 (43.3%) isolated interventions, and 1,589 (4.0%) with multiple procedures. Of these, 4,708 (11.8%) were performed in neonates, 10,047 (25.2%) in infants, 19,351 (48.5%) in children of 1 to 18 years, and 5,769 (14.5%) in adults. Also, 15,845 (33.9%) cases could be allocated to so-called index procedures which underwent a more detailed evaluation to enable meaningful comparability. The mean unadjusted in-hospital mortality of all cases in our registry ranged from 0.3% in patients with isolated interventions and 2.0% in patients with surgical procedures up to 9.1% in patients undergoing multiple procedures., Conclusion: This annually updated registry of both scientific societies represents voluntary public reporting by accumulating actual information for surgical and interventional procedures in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) in Germany. It describes advancements in cardiac medicine and is a basis for internal and external quality assurance for all participating institutions. In addition, the registry demonstrates that in Germany, both interventional and surgical procedures for treatment of CHD are offered with high medical quality., Competing Interests: None declared., (The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).)

Antimicrobial stewardship programmes (ASP) are aimed at optimising antimicrobial utilization. However, only few studies have focused on paediatric intensive care units (PICU), where inappropriate antibiotic use occurs frequently. We assessed the effect and safety of a once weekly paediatric infectious disease (PID) ward round with prospective audit and feedback on antibiotic consumption in a multidisciplinary PICU. This study was conducted within 6-months periods before and after the implementation of a weekly PID-ward round. Antimicrobial management and two main recommendations per patient were discussed and documented. The primary outcome was antimicrobial utilization, measured by days of therapy (DoT) and length of therapy (LoT) per 1000 patient days (PD) for all PICU stays. Secondary outcomes included PICU mean length of stay, total mortality, infection-related mortality and cost of therapy. 1964 PD were analyzed during the pre- and 1866 PD during the post-implementation phase. Adherence to the recommendations was 79%. An 18% reduction of DoT/1000 PD was observed in the post-implementation period (p = 0.005). LoT/1000 PD decreased by 11% (p = 0.09). Meropenem and vancomycin usage were reduced by 49% (p = 0.07) and 56% (p = 0.03), respectively. We conclude, that a once weekly PID-ward round with prospective audit and feedback is safe and effective and reduces antibiotic consumption in PICUs.

Background : After encouraging results with the Edwards Sapien and XT valves, this study aimed to review procedural data and early outcomes for the Sapien 3 valves for transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement (TPVR). Methods : We performed a multicenter, retrospective analysis of cases who underwent a Sapien 3 TPVR between 2015 and 2017 in 7 centers in Germany with a follow-up of up to 2 years. Results : 56 patients could be enrolled (weight 58,5 ± 25,0 kg; 53% Tetralogy of Fallot, 45% native RVOT). Most procedures were two-stage procedures (82,1%) with 100% prestenting. Valve sizes were 20 mm (n = 1), 23 mm (n = 15), 26 mm (n = 27), 29 mm (n = 13). Procedural success rate was 96.4%. Two patients underwent surgical valve implantation after balloon rupture during TPVR. Follow-up data were available up to 24-month post TPVR. The rate of patients with ? moderate and severe pulmonary regurgitation decreased to 0% after TPVR, peak systolic gradient decreased from 24,2 (SD±20,9) mmHg to 7,1 mmHg (SD±5,0). There were no endocarditis, severe tricuspid valve impairment or stent fractures. Conclusions : With the Edwards Sapien 3 valve, the patient pool for TPVR can be substantially extended. Continued data collection is necessary to verify long-term results.

Background: Recently, there is a growing scarcity of qualified personnel in German healthcare system. This can lead to problems especially in the highly specialized neonatal and pediatric intensive care., Methods: We conducted a survey to evaluate the staffing situation at 583 European neonatal and pediatric intensive care units (ICU)., Results: Response rate was 48.5%. As a main result our evaluation demonstrated a significant lower nurse-staffing in Germany compared to the other countries (90.4 vs. 95.8%, p<0.001). In addition, the average nurse-to-patient ratio was worse in German neonatal ICUs (3.0 vs. 2.3, p<0.001). The presence of senior doctors is also lower in German neonatal and pediatric ICUs compared to the other countries (on weekdays: 12.0 vs. 14.6 h, p=0.04; on weekends: 8.9 vs. 13.2 h, p=0.003)., Discussion: Our survey demonstrates that the nurse-staffing at neonatal and ICUs in Germany is worse than in other European countries. The resulting potential loss of quality is worsened due to lower presence of senior doctors at the ICUs. Possible consequences include increase of complications, impairment of treatment success, closure of intensive care beds, and mental and physical illness of the staff., Conclusion: Compared to other European countries, there is a lack of nurses at neonatal and pediatric ICUs in Germany. This study underlines the importance to take measures to counteract nursing crisis., Competing Interests: Die Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Background: Umbilical vein catheterisation is a common and useful procedure in the care of critically ill newborns, but several complications may occur., Patients: We report on a newborn, who developed sepsis and necrotizing pneumonia of the right middle lobe due to extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL) Klebsiella following malposition of an umbilical vein catheter into a right pulmonary vein., Results: Due to failed conservative treatment the child required lobectomy of the right middle lobe., Conclusion: Our case highlights the importance of exact determination of the position of central catheters by x-ray and/or ultrasound immediately after placement.

In this study we review our experience with total cavopulmonary anastomosis (modified Fontan procedure) which was performed in 31 patients. One patient died from postoperative cardiac low-output syndrome, the other died from a neurological complication (early mortality 6.5%). During a mean follow-up period of 15 months there was no late mortality. Preoperative assessment showed that one, two, or three of the Choussat criteria (defining the ideal Fontan candidate) were not fulfilled by 39%, 16% and 6% of our patients. In the 2 patients who died 2 and 3 of those criteria were not fulfilled. Poor outcome could not be predicted based on assessment of the pulmonary artery size (expressed as the McGoon-ratio or the Nakata-index) alone. In order to assess the relationship of pulmonary artery size and pulmonary arteriolar resistance (PVR) as a predictor of outcome, we introduced two new indices (McGoon-ratio/PVR and Nakata-index/PVR). The patient who died from poor postoperative hemodynamics had the lowest values of all patients. Among the 29 survivors we did not observe significant acquired postoperative arrhythmias. In our experience the total cavopulmonary anastomosis can be performed with a low mortality and good postoperative results. Patients who do not fulfill at least 8 of the Choussat criteria and children with a low ratio of pulmonary artery size to PVR are high-risk patients. In these children we recommend either a bidirectional Glenn anastomosis as a first-step procedure or a total cavopulmonary anastomosis with a fenestration of the intraatrial tunnel.