Table 3.

Factors associated with diet improvement in those with tube feeds at initial discharge

	Improved to PO diet	Persistent tube feeding	P-value
N	110	107
Age at surgery (months)	0.33(IQR0.16–1.7)	1.2(IQR0.23–7.8)	0.004
Female Gender	52 (47.3%)	50 (46.7%)	0.936
Prematurity	10 (9.1%)	12 (11.2%)	0.604
Single ventricle cardiac disease	57 (51.8%)	41 (38.3%)	0.046
Surgical procedure
PDA ligation	2 (1.8%)	5 (4.7%)	0.234
Norwood	22 (20%)	16 (15%)	0.328
PDA stent/PA banding	13 (11.8%)	10 (9.4%)	0.554
BTT shunt	5 (4.5%)	16 (15%)	0.01
Aortic root	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
Coarctation of Aorta repair/arch repair	38 (34.5%)	12 (11.2%)	< 0.0005
Vascular ring repair	3 (2.7%)	3 (2.8%)	0.973
Arterial switch operation	10 (9.1%)	10 (9.4%)	0.948
Truncus arteriosus repair	3 (2.7%)	2 (1.9%)	0.674
Heart transplant	11 (10%)	13 (12.1%)	0.614
LVAD	2 (1.8%)	17 (15.9%)	< 0.0005
Other	1 (0.9%)	3 (2.8%)	0.3
Comorbidities
ECMO	1 (0.9%)	6 (5.6%)	0.05
Syndromic	13 (11.8%)	27 (25.2%)	0.011
Neurological	43 (39.1%)	54 (50.5%)	0.092
Airway abnormality	11 (10%)	17 15.9%)	0.196
Lower airway	6 (5.5%)	23 (21.5%)	0.001
Tracheostomy	9 (8.2%)	18 (16.8%)	0.054
Nissen	1 (0.9%)	3 (2.8%)	0.3
Complications
Chylothorax	26 (23.6%)	27 (25.2%)	0.784
Diaphragm paralysis	9 (8.2%)	11 (10.3%)	0.593
VFMI
VFMI after surgery*	45/70 (40.9%)	31/56 (29.0%)	0.309
VFMI at the end of follow-up*	19/37 (17.3%)	11/25 (10.3%)	0.57

Bold values denote statistical significance at the p < 0.05

PDA Patent ductus arteriosus, BTT Blalock–Thomas–Taussig, LVAD Left ventricular assist device, ECMO Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, VFMI Vocal fold motion impairment

*Denominator denotes patients that had laryngoscopy performed