CONGENITAL HEART-DISEASE IN ADULTS - A NEW CARDIOVASCULAR SUBSPECIALTY

Advances in diagnostic methods and in the surgical and medical care of infants and children with congenital heart disease have profoundly affected survival patterns. A therapeutic era that brought together cardiologists and cardiac surgeons proved to be one of the most successful rehabilitation programs that medicine has witnessed. The heavy investments in time and resources that were needed to accomplish these results in young patients must be matched with a similar dedication to the adolescent, postadolescent, and adult with congenital heart disease. A first necessity is to underscore the seminal role and prerogatives of pediatric cardiologists and pediatric cardiac surgeons, without whose efforts congenital heart disease in adults would not be a matter of current pride and interest. This new cardiovascular subspecialty presently comprises multidisciplinary facilities for comprehensive care, survival patterns (natural and postoperative), medical considerations, surgical considerations, and postoperative residua and sequelae.