The role of ultrasound in monitoring of interventional cardiac catheterization in patients with congenital heart disease

Abstract

The introduction of cardiac ultrasound techniques in the practice of paediatric cardiology has revolutionized the diagnosis and management of patients with congenital heart disease over the past 15 years. A high proportion of infants and children undergo complete surgical correction of their congenital cardiac lesions without prior cardiac catheterization. Lesions in which diagnostic catheterization is no longer indicated include: anomalous pulmonary venous connections, atrial septal defects, atrioventricular septal defects, the majority of ventricular septal defects, transposition of the great arteries and also hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Thus, over the past decade the total number of diagnostic cardiac catheterizations in children with congenital heart disease has fallen dramatically. At the same time, however, a range of interventional cardiac catheterization procedures have become available and are now firmly established. With these changes about 40% of all cardiac catheterization procedures in children with congenital heart disease are now interventional procedures.