Neurodevelopment in Children with Congenital Heart Disease: An Opportunity for the Cardiovascular Trainee

As outcomes have improved for children with congenital heart disease (CHD), there has been an increased focus on long-term functional outcomes. Neurodevelopment is of particular importance as it affects so many aspects of the child’s life and can be a major determinant of their overall quality of life– from how they eat, play, learn, understand, communicate with others, express themselves, interact with their surroundings, and ultimately, their experience at school, and work. The importance of neurodevelopmental outcomes for children with CHD has been underscored by the creation of the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Outcome Collaborative, a multi-national, multidisciplinary group of professionals whose purpose is maximize quality of life through optimizing neurodevelopmental outcomes for children with CHD. Despite its tremendous importance, there are currently no rotations dedicated to neurodevelopment at any of the Canadian Pediatric Cardiology Training Programs. Furthermore, any mention of neurodevelopment is noticeably absent from program descriptions for all training programs on the Canadian Resident Matching Service website and it may be difficult to carve out dedicated time for Canadian Pediatric Cardiology trainees who are already very busy in their current program schema. Nevertheless, there are a variety of longitudinal opportunities which could be undertaken concomitantly with training to enhance understanding of important factors contributing to neurodevelopment and their ultimate impact on the child with CHD. The purpose of this commentary is to briefly review factors contributing to brain health and neurodevelopmental impairments in children with CHD, outline possible ways to learn more about this important issue, and hopefully, stimulate trainee exposure, learning, and contribution to neurodevelopment in children with CHD.