The purpose of the study is to compare the effects of nesiritide on the discharge time and pleural effusion in children with total cavopulmonary connection (TCPC), and to provide a more reasonable clinical method for these children.

Forty-four who children underwent cavopulmonary connection between January 2016 and 2017 were retrospectively collected, and 5 children were excluded from analysis due to postoperative thrombosis or second Fontan surgery due to high pulmonary hypertension. Thirteen children received nesiritide (3–11 days) plus conventional treatment as the nesiritide group, continuous infusion of nesiritide with the dose of 0.01 ug kg⁻¹ min⁻¹. Twenty-six children with the conventional treatment as the conventional treatment group. The length of stay in hospital and the retention time of chest drainage tube were compared between two groups.

There were no significant differences in the time of cardiopulmonary bypass, postoperative ventilation time, ICU time, and vasoactive inotropic drug scores in the two groups. There were no hospital deaths in two groups. The median hospital stay was 20 days in the nesiritide group (11–56 days, means 25 days), and the median length of hospital stay was 28 days in the routine treatment group (9–95 days, means 34 days). There is no statistically significant difference between two groups with regard to the length of stay in hospital (P = 0.281). Regarding the thoracic drainage duration, the median was 17 days (9–55 days, means 22 days) in the nesiritide group and 23 days in the conventional treatment group (7–91 days, means 31 days) (P = 0.294). All the patients had no severe complications such as excessive fluid load, intractable hypotension, and liver or kidney injury.

Nesiritide is safe in children who underwent cavopulmonary connection surgery. Compared with the conventional treatment group, postoperative nesiritide is not associated with improved early clinical outcomes after TCPC surgery.