Radiation from Fukushima accident did not increase congenital heart disease surgeries
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There appears to be no increase in surgeries for congenital heart disease as a result of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, researchers reported.
Additionally, investigators in Japan determined that mortality from first-time surgeries for complex diseases decreased between 2010 and 2013.
“The Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011, and triggered a massive tsunami,” Yasutaka Hirata, MD, PhD, of the department of cardiac surgery at the University of Tokyo Hospital, and colleagues wrote. “This natural disaster precipitated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which inflicted radiation damage across a vast area centered around the Tohoku region of northern Japan. In particular, the effects of this damage on pregnant mothers and newborns was a matter of concern to all.”
For the analysis of the Japan Cardiovascular Surgery Database published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, investigators assessed any fluctuations in the incidence of congenital heart disease among patients born between 2010 and 2013. Researchers also assessed the trend in the number of first-time surgeries among young patients and mortality.
The numbers of first-time surgeries in the cohort for each year were:
- 2,978 in 2010;
- 2,924 in 2011;
- 3,077 in 2012; and
- 2,940 in 2013.
No apparent increasing trend was observed for all surgeries (P = .75) or complex surgeries (P = .59) anywhere in Japan.
When the data were restricted to only centers within the Tohoku area, there was also no increasing trend for all surgeries (P = .43) and complex procedures (P = .76).
When researchers divided the number of first-time surgeries by the overall number of live births, they found no apparent increase in the proportion of all (P for all of Japan = .16; P for Tohoku area = .18) or complex cases (P for all Japan = .8; P for Tohoku area = .89).
Moreover, the incidence of mortality in first-time surgeries performed for complex diseases decreased from 4.7% in 2010 to 2.2% in 2013 (P = .01).
“A report titled ‘Levels and effects of radiation exposure to the nuclear accident after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami,’ published by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation in 2013, determined that in nearly all parts of Japan, the amount of radiation exposure that may have occurred both in the year of the accident itself and thereafter is smaller than the amount of background radiation exposure to the human body (in Japan, this equals 2.1 mSv),” the researchers wrote. “The report concludes that for people living several hundred kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor, radiation exposure is essentially not an issue.”
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