Universal Screening for CCHD in Saudi Arabia: The Road to a ‘State of the Art’ Program

Abstract

Critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) has been defined as structural heart defects that are usually associated with hypoxia in the newborn period and have potential for significant morbidity and mortality early in life. CCHD has been estimated to be present in ∼3 in 1000 live births, including Saudi Arabia. Pulse Oximetry Screening (POS) is a highly specific and moderately sensitive test for detecting CCHD with very low false-positive rates. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is among high-income countries with a population of more than 33 million and more than 600,000 annual live births. In 2015, the Universal Screening Program for CCHD using Pulse Oximetry was approved in Saudi Arabia. It is expected that any new national program will undergo a learning curve and face many challenges. We believe that developing countries may face different challenges during implementation of such national projects, but the success achieved by Saudi Arabia in implementing the program was mainly due to good preparation before launching the project and advancements in the use of the technology involved in this project. Since starting the universal CCHD screening in 2016, more than 900,000 babies have been screened in Saudi Arabia and many lives have been saved using this safe, non-invasive, inexpensive, and reasonably sensitive test.

Newborn Critical Congenital Heart Disease Screening Using Pulse Oximetry: Value and Unique Challenges in Developing Regions

“…The focus of this special issue is the role and growing importance of CCHD screening using pulse oximetry in developing countries. It includes a manuscript from Saudi Arabia describing how a national program can be implemented incorporating the most up to date technology in data collection and based on current best practices with careful planning, structured preparation, and perhaps most critically—government support [ 12 ].…”