Objectives: The objectives of this retrospective study were to evaluate long-term growth of children with CHD and to look for possible relationships between postsurgical catch-up growth and both severity of preoperative growth failure and operation age.

Study design: Growth data of 125 children with isolated CHD were available. The patients were subdivided in five different groups according to diagnosis. Mean z-scores and 95% confidence intervals for weight, height and weight-for-height were plotted for both age-periods and for pre- and postoperative periods. Correlations were looked for making use of the Pearson correlation coefficient.

Results: Growth was most abnormal in patients with a large VSD or with tetralogy of Fallot, who showed mean initial height z-scores of -3.27 and-2.68 improving to -0.75 and -1,22 for large VSD and Fallot patients respectively. Catch-up growth for length was strongly correlated with severity of the preoperative growth failure (r = 0.92, p<0.05) but not with operation age (r = 0.20, NS).

Conclusions: Patients with a large VSD or Fallot have severe growth failure. Surgical correction results in catch-up growth for most individuals. Catch-up growth is positively correlated with the severity of the initial growth disturbance and not with the age at surgical correction.