BACKGROUND: The relationship between the prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart defects (CHDs) and age at CHD surgery is poorly understood, despite the known relationships between age at surgery and long-term outcomes. The objective of this study was to determine the associations between prenatal diagnosis of CHD and age at surgery, and whether these associations differ for critical and noncritical CHDs. METHODS: This is a cohort analysis of patients aged 0 to 9 years who received their initial cardiac surgery at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago between 2015 and 2021 with prenatal diagnosis as the exposure variable. All data were obtained from the locally maintained Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database at Lurie Children’s Hospital. We used multivariable fixed effects regression models to estimate the strength of the association of prenatal diagnosis with age at surgery among patients with critical (surgery ≤60 days) and noncritical (surgery >60 days) CHDs. RESULTS: Of 1131 individuals who met inclusion criteria, 532 (47%) had a prenatal diagnosis, 428 (38%) had critical CHDs, 533 (47%) were female, and the median age at surgery was 119 days (interquartile range, 11–309 days). After controlling for demographics, comorbidities, and surgical complexity, the mean age at surgery was significantly younger in those with prenatally versus postnatally diagnosed critical CHD (7.1 days sooner, P <0.001) and noncritical CHDs (atrial septal defects [12.4 months sooner, P =0.037], ventricular septal defects [6.0 months sooner, P <0.003], and noncritical coarctation of the aorta [1.8 months sooner, P =0.010]). CONCLUSIONS: Younger age at CHD surgery, which is associated with postsurgical neurodevelopmental and physical outcomes, is significantly associated with prenatal CHD diagnosis. This relationship was identified for both critical and noncritical CHDs.

Objective: To ascertain patient‐reported, modifiable barriers to prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart defects (CHDs).Methods: This was a mixed‐methods study among caretakers of infants who received congenital heart surgery from 2019 to 2020 in the Chicagoland area. Quantitative variables measuring sociodemographic characteristics and prenatal care utilization, and qualitative data pertaining to patient‐reported barriers to prenatal diagnosis were collected from electronic health records and semi‐structured phone surveys. Thematic analysis was performed using a convergent parallel approach.Results: In total, 160 caretakers completed the survey, 438 were eligible for survey, and 49 (31%) received prenatal care during the COVID‐19 pandemic. When comparing respondents and non‐respondents, there was a lower prevalence of maternal Hispanic ethnicity and a higher prevalence of non‐English/Spanish‐speaking households. Of all respondents, 34% reported an undetected CHD on ultrasound or echocardiogram, while 79% reported at least one barrier to prenatal diagnosis related to social determinants of health. Among those social barriers, the most common were difficulty with appointment scheduling (n = 12, 9.5%), far distance to care/lack of access to transportation (n = 12, 9.5%) and difficulty getting time off work to attend appointments (n = 6, 4.8%). The latter two barriers were correlated.Conclusion: While technical improvements in the detection of CHDs remain an important area of research, it is equally critical to produce evidence for interventions that mitigate barriers to prenatal diagnosis due to social determinants of health.