World Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery, 2019, 9, 63-72 http://www.scirp.org/journal/wjcs ISSN Online: 2164-3210 ISSN Print: 2164-3202 DOI: 10.4236/wjcs.2019.97008 Jul. 5, 2019 63 World Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery Status of Congenital Heart Defects in Nigeria: The Role of Cardiac Surgery Ikechukwu A. Nwafor * , John C. Eze National Cardiothoracic Center of Excellence, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Ituku-Ozalla, Nigeria Abstract Background: Unlike in developed countries, the delivery of cardiovascular services to children born with congenital heart defects in Nigeria is inade- quate. There are problems at both pediatric and adult ages with high morbid- ity and mortality on account of inadequate surgical care. Objective: To de- termine the status of congenital defects and assess the impact of foreign car- diac missionary missions vis-à-vis the effects on the magnitude as well as on the educational program for the local cardiac team. Materials and Method: In the last 5.5 years, Foreign Cardiac Surgery missions were reinstituted at National Cardiothoracic Center of Excellence, Enugu, Nigeria. The partici- pants performed cardiac interventions on a variety of patients with CHD. We performed a retrospective review of this endeavor. Patients’ demographics, number of patients, age ranges, types of CHD and clinical evaluation metho- dology were obtained from our hospital’s record department. We also as- sessed types of cardiac interventions, outcome and challenges and the impacts of the foreign cardiac surgery missions. Results: During the study period, a total of 72 children with CHD were evaluated. They were 39 males and 33 females. The age ranged between 0 - 10 years in children and 41 - 50 years in the adult. We studied both simple and complex anomalies. A VSD was the commonest (n = 22, 27.16%). Conclusion: Foreign congenital cardiac sur- gery missions were not able to provide adequate services for the care of CHD that require cardiac surgery both in terms of reduction in magnitude as well as adequate educational program for the local cardiac team. Thus infants, in particular, suffer an early death. The need for governmental support to de- velop a comprehensive program to care for these patients is essential in Nige- ria and other developing countries. Keywords Status, Heart, Congenital, International, Mission How to cite this paper: Nwafor, I.A. and Eze, J.C. (2019) Status of Congenital Heart Defects in Nigeria: The Role of Cardiac Surgery. World Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery, 9, 63-72. https://doi.org/10.4236/wjcs.2019.97008 Received: May 27, 2019 Accepted: July 3, 2019 Published: July 5, 2019 Copyright © 2019 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Open Access