Cardiopulmonary Bypass to Repair an Atrial Septal Defect Does Not Affect Cognitive Function in Children

BACKGROUND: Changes in neurocognitive function after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) are difficult to assess in children with congenital cardiovascular malformations in part because identification of a suitable control group of children is difficult. METHODS AND RESULTS: We evaluated neurocognitive function in subjects aged 3 to 17 years both before and after surgical repair of an atrial septal defect (ASD). Eighteen subjects underwent testing within a median of 3 days (range, 1 to 27) before surgery and 5.8 months (range, 5.5 to 9) after surgery. The Differential Ability Scales was administered to subjects in a single testing session. All subjects were considered to be healthy, and they had no activity limitations. The mean General Conceptual Ability (GCA) scores (analogous to IQ) for the group were in the normal range before and after ASD repair. No significant difference was detected between the GCA scores before and after surgery. The GCA score was 90.8+/-18.6 before surgery and 93.1+/-16.3 after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Use of CPB was not associated with changes in cognitive function in our subjects who underwent repair of an ASD.