Incidence of atrial septal defects in children attended the Cardiac Center of Ethiopia during January 2016 to December 2018

Abstract Background Although it appears that an atrial septal defect (ASD) occurs frequently in Ethiopia there are only a few published studies available so far on this matter. This study is therefore aimed to evaluate the prevalence and echocardiographic characteristics of ASDs in children (aged ≤ 15 years) attended a cardiac referral center in Ethiopia. Methods This retrospective study reviewed the sociodemographic data and the initial echocardiographic findings of the children with ASDs who were diagnosed at the Cardiac Center of Ethiopia (CCE), Addis Ababa, from January 2016 to December 2018. Results A total of 116 children (56.9% females and 43.1% males) with a mean age of 3.47± 3.72 years (range: 15 days to 15 years) were diagnosed with ASDs. The most prevalent age groups were infancy (50%) and early childhood (29.3%). All the studied cases were diagnosed with ostium secundum ASD while there were no cases with ostium primum, sinus venosus and coronary sinus defects. The most frequent ostium secundum ASD was large size (61.2%) and was more frequent in infants (23.3%) and young children (21.6% of all cases). Conclusion Ostium secundum ASD is the most prevalent IAS defect and more common among female cases. Large size ostium secundum ASD is more frequent in the studied children and is more prevalent in infants and young children. This survey may provide data for the currently lacking statistics on ASDs at the CCE and might be helpful for the management and follow-up of children with ASDs. Scheduled follow-up and intervention studies are required to evaluate the incidence and patterns of spontaneous and surgical closure of ASD and their outcomes.