Perfil das crian？as submetidas à corre？？o de cardiopatia congênita e análise das complica？？es respiratórias

objective: to describe the profile of children that undergo surgical correction of congenital heart disease (chd) in a university hospital and to compare patients with and without postoperative respiratory complications. method: this observational analytical study reviewed the records of children that underwent corrective surgery for chd a brazilian university hospital during 11 months. the following demographic variables were collected: age, sex, body mass index, comorbidities, and chd types. demographic variables and data about the intra- and postoperative care were compared for patients with and without postoperative respiratory complications. the mann-whitney and the fisher exact tests were used, and the level of significance was set at p<0.05. results: the sample consisted of 55 children (49% boys) whose median age was 37.5 months. three or more chd were found in 29.1%, and 53% of all cases had comorbidities. the analysis of postoperative respiratory complications revealed that 31% of the patients had atelectasis and pleural effusion and 5.5% had laryngitis, pneumomediastinum or lung injury. non-respiratory complications were identified in 24% of the patients. survival was 89%. children with postoperative respiratory complications received mechanical ventilation for a longer time and had a prolonged hospital stay (p<0.001). conclusion: the association between respiratory complications, longer mechanical ventilation and longer hospital stay reinforced the need to avoid such complications to reduce costs of a prolonged hospital stay.