Anesthetic management of neonates undergoing diagnostic and therapeutic cardiac catheterization: a systematic literature review

Background: Several interventional cardiology procedures are required in neonates with congenital heart disease. Interventional cardiology procedures have a higher risk of cardiac arrest compared to other interventions. At present, there is great heterogeneity in the perioperative management of congenital heart disease neonates undergoing diagnostic cardiac catheterization or therapeutic cardiac catheterization. Study objectives: Primary aim: Provide a systematic review of the most effective and/or safe anesthetic and perioperative management in neonates with congenital heart disease who undergo diagnostic cardiac catheterization or therapeutic cardiac catheterization. Secondary aim: Identify the medications, monitoring parameters and airway management used in the same population. Design: Systematic literature review. Setting: Catheterization laboratory. Methods: Literature was searched (December 2017) in electronic databases Medline, EMBASE, ScienceDirect, BIREME‐Lilacs‐Biblioteca Virtual de la Salud, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects and Health Technology Assessment Database. Main results: From 130 records identified, four studies met inclusion criteria and quality assessment. None of the studies were relevant to the primary objective. Regarding the secondary objectives, one study compared the efficacy and adverse effects of racemic ketamine and its S(+) ketamine enantiomer, one study reported the efficacy of subarachnoid anesthesia for high‐risk children undergoing diagnostic cardiac catheterization, one study identified the factors associated to high severity adverse events related to sedation, anesthesia and airway, and one study retrospectively analyzed cardiac catheterization procedures in neonates weighing less than 2.5 kg. Conclusion: There are no evidence‐based recommendations available for congenital heart disease neonates undergoing cardiac catheterization. More studies are required to evaluate the ideal anesthetic and perioperative management in this population.