The impact of rhinovirus infections in children undergoing cardiac surgery

This is a prospective single- center observational study in the Leiden University Medical Center in approximately 250 children (<12 years) undergoing elective cardiac surgery, for congenital heart disease.
The parents/guardians of the children will be asked to fill out a questionnaire, to asses respiratory symptoms in the last weeks, before the operation of their child. In the operating theatre, a nasopharyngeal swab will collected. Clinical data will be collected daily during paediatric intensive care admission, and date of discharge from paediatric intensive care unit and from hospital are recorded. If children are still intubated at day 4 a second nasopharyngeal swab and residual blood will be collected. The samples will be tested for rhinovirus with a polymerase chain reaction.
Main study parameter is the paediatric intensive care unit length of stay in per-operative rhinovirus –positive compared to rhinovirus-negative patients.

we hypothesize that paediatric patients with per-operative rhinovirus positive Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing have a longer paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admission , compared to children who test negative.

day -1: questionnaire

day 0 (operation day) : collection of nasopharyngeal swab

day 4: if still intubated: nasopharyngeal swab will be sampled and scavenge samples blood will be requested at the chemical laboratory

The parents/guardians of the children will be asked to fill out a questionnaire before the operation of their child. In the operating theatre, a nasopharyngeal swab will collected in the children after induction of anaesthesia and thus without any discomfort. Clinical data will be collected daily during paediatric intensive care admission, and date of discharge from PICU and from hospital are recorded. Of all the patients still on mechanical ventilation at day 4, an additional nasopharyngeal swab will be sampled and scavenge samples blood will be requested at the chemical laboratory if available. Rhinovirus PCR will be performed on nasopharyngeal swab and blood to determine shedding and viremia.