The incidence of pericardial effusion requiring intervention in infants with a history of umbilical catheter placement: the US national database

Abstract

To assess the association of umbilical catheters (UC) placement with pericardial effusion (PCE) in newborn infants. We analyzed the National Inpatient Sample dataset. We compared prevalence of PCE in infants with UC versus those without in three subpopulations: infants with birth weight (BW)\u2009>\u20092500\u2009g or GA\u2009>\u200934 weeks, preterm infants with BW\u2009<\u20091500\u2009g, and term infants with congenital heart disease (CHD) using regression analysis methods while controlling for clinical and demographic variables. First analysis included a weighted sample of 22,751,313 infants with no hydrops fetalis. Of them, 1869 neonates (0.01%) had PCE. Pericardial effusion was found in 0.17% of infants with only UAC, 0.21% of infants with only UVC and 0.29% of infants with both catheters with an adjusted odds ratios (aOR) (1.5, CI:1.2–1.9), (2.3, CI:1.7–2.9), and (2.9, CI:2.4–3.6), p\u2009<\u20090.001, respectively. Similar findings were found in infants <1500\u2009g and in those with CHD. Umbilical Catheter placement is associated with increased risk for pericardial effusion.