Interventional Cardiology for Congenital Heart Disease

Congenital heart interventions are now replacing surgical palliation and correction in an evolving number of congenital heart defects. Right ventricular outflow tract and ductus arteriosus stenting have demonstrated favorable outcomes compared to surgical systemic to pulmonary artery shunting, and it is likely surgical pulmonary valve replacement will become an uncommon procedure within the next decade, mirroring current practices in the treatment of atrial septal defects. Challenges remain, including the lack of device design focused on smaller infants and the inevitable consequences of somatic growth. Increasing parental and physician expectancy has inevitably lead to higher risk interventions on smaller infants and appreciation of the consequences of these interventions on departmental outcome data needs to be considered. Registry data evaluating congenital heart interventions remain less robust than surgical registries, leading to a lack of insight into the longer-term consequences of our interventions. Increasing collaboration with surgical colleagues has not been met with necessary development of dedicated equipment for hybrid interventions aimed at minimizing the longer-term consequences of scar to the heart. Therefore, great challenges remain to ensure children and adults with congenital heart disease continue to benefit from an exponential growth in minimally invasive interventions and technology. This can only be achieved through a concerted collaborative approach from physicians, industry, academia and regulatory bodies supporting great innovators to continue the philosophy of thinking beyond the limits that has been the foundation of our specialty for the past 50 years.