Introduction

Congenital heart disease (CHD) affects 0.5 to one percent of newborns with approximately one third requiring interventions in the first month of life [1]. Enormous advances in the fields of diagnostic and interventional cardiology as well as in cardiac surgery have resulted in survival rates of greater than 90% even when considering some of the most complex and previously fatal conditions such as hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Infants and children with CHD often undergo noncardiac surgery, either for nonspecific diagnoses or for diagnoses that are syndromically or genetically related to the underlying cardiac lesions. For this reason, general pediatric surgeons should have a working knowledge of CHD and the pathophysiology that accompanies common cardiac lesions. Coordination of care with cardiologists, cardiovascular surgeons and cardiac anesthesiologists is of paramount importance in obtaining the best possible outcomes when operating on children with CHD.

see also Patent Ductus Arteriosus and Vascular Rings