Congenital heart surgery in Belgium. State of the art in 2003

Congenital heart surgery has evolved from its pioneering days to a multidisciplinary speciality with important scientific contributions from different fields. Progress became obvious in different fields. Surgical results improved considerably: immediate survival as well as long-term outcome. Interventional cardiology emerged and took care of a large number of easy surgical cases. It allowed the surgeon to address the more complex cardiac deformities, often in combination with interventional techniques. Therefore the daily surgical practice of the congenital heart surgeons has changed to more complex pathology and procedures. Very recent fields of evolution are the generation of knowledge in genetic predisposition and prenatal diagnosis. Both give additional information to improve parent information and to optimise treatment.