Congenital Heart Disease

Congenital heart defects are cardiac abnormalities present at birth. Approximately eight out of every 1,000 infants are born with congenital heart disease.

Some defects are mild and may not even be apparent during infancy or childhood. Others are life threatening and require surgery during infancy.

The care of infants and children with congenital heart disease has been a monumental success.

With the advent of sophisticated diagnostic imaging, advanced medical therapy, catheter-based interventional procedures, and innovative surgery, over 90 percent of infants born with a congenital heart defect now survive well into adulthood.

However, this success has brought new challenges. In many cases, patients who have undergone surgical repair of their defect are "fixed" but their hearts are not normal, creating conditions that are unfamiliar to most physicians who care for adult patients.

Given the complexity of caring for adult patients with repaired or unrepaired congenital heart defects, specialized programs for this purpose have evolved throughout the world including here, at Fletcher Allen, where we are committed to providing state-of-the-art and comprehensive care for adults with repaired or unrepaired congenital heart defects.