Long-term follow up of infants with congenital diaphragmatic hernia

With improving treatment strategies for congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) infants, an increase in survival of more severely affected patients can be expected. Consequently, more attention is now focused on long-term follow up of these patients. Many reports have emphasized associated morbidity, including pulmonary sequelae, neurodevelopmental deficits, gastrointestinal disorders, and other abnormalities. Therefore, survivors of CDH remain a complex patient population to care for throughout infancy and childhood, thus requiring long-term follow up. Much information has been provided from many centers regarding individual institutional improvements in overall survival. Few of these, however, have reported long-term follow up. The aim of this review is to describe the long-term outcome of survivors with CDH and to suggest a possible follow-up protocol for these patients.

Keywords: Congenital diaphragmatic hernia, Gastro-esophageal reflux, Musculoskeletal abnormalities, Neurodevelopmental outcome, Pulmonary morbidity, Quality of life