Congenital cardiology: recent advances emphasise the need for collaboration

The population of adult patients with congenital heart disease is steadily growing, due to the developments in cardiac surgery and thereby decreased mortality. However, morbidity in these patients is substantial. Patients with repaired lesions often need reoperations later in life. Most congenital heart defects, operated or not, have the potential to lead to clinical heart failure. Arrhythmias affect up to 50% of patients with congenital heart disease. The prevalence of pulmonary hypertension due to a left-to-right shunt among patients with a congenital heart defect is estimated at 4 to 10%. Advances in diagnostics, interventional and surgical therapy will result in new populations of adult survivors with even more complex disease. Collaboration of cardiologists with expertise in different areas of modern cardiology, such as electrophysiology, imaging and percutaneous interventions, is necessary for optimal care and management of these patients.