Aid decision algorithms to estimate the risk in congenital heart surgery

• We propose an alternative system for classifying the risk in paediatric congenital heart surgery.
• Four methods are tested: a perceptron multilayer, self-organising maps, a radial basis function neural network and decision trees.
• We obtain an accuracy of 99.87% (using pre and post-surgical data) and 83% (using just pre-surgical data).

Background and objectiveIn this paper, we have tested the suitability of using different artificial intelligence-based algorithms for decision support when classifying the risk of congenital heart surgery. In this sense, classification of those surgical risks provides enormous benefits as the a priori estimation of surgical outcomes depending on either the type of disease or the type of repair, and other elements that influence the final result. This preventive estimation may help to avoid future complications, or even death.MethodsWe have evaluated four machine learning algorithms to achieve our objective: multilayer perceptron, self-organizing map, radial basis function networks and decision trees. The architectures implemented have the aim of classifying among three types of surgical risk: low complexity, medium complexity and high complexity.ResultsAccuracy outcomes achieved range between 80% and 99%, being the multilayer perceptron method the one that offered a higher hit ratio.ConclusionsAccording to the results, it is feasible to develop a clinical decision support system using the evaluated algorithms. Such system would help cardiology specialists, paediatricians and surgeons to forecast the level of risk related to a congenital heart disease surgery.