Retinovascular findings in newborns with critical congenital heart disease: A case series

Critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) may cause changes in retinal vasculature. However, there is lack of data in this issue in newborns. We evaluated retinovascular changes in a series of 43 newborn with CCHD. They were divided into 2 groups according to the type of CCHD; group 1 (n=18): left obstructive CCHD and group 2 (n=25): right obstructive CCHD. Retinovascular pathologies were detected in 21 patients (48.8%); it was more frequent in group 1 (p=0.04). The most common pathology was retinal vascular tortuosity in 6 patients (33.3%) of group 1, and 4 (16.0%) in group 2. None of 21 patients with retinovascular changes required any therapy at follow-up. In multivariate analysis, only having a left obstructive CCHD was associated with the development of any retinovascular pathology (P=0.03, OR: 2.8, CI95%: 1.1-7.4). Retinovascular changes are frequent in newborn patients with CCHD.