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Overview
Historically, only a minority of children born with a congenital heart defect survived into adulthood; however, recent advances in surgical treatments and techniques have reversed these statistics. Now, approximately 90 percent of children born with a heart defect live healthy lives through adulthood. This shift in survival rates has produced a relatively new group of patients with a new set of challenges for the medical community--adults with congenital heart disease. Today, adults with congenital heart disease outnumber children with the condition.
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Although repairs of a heart defect are corrective; they are not curative. All survivors have an increased risk of developing heart problems as their hearts and bodies age. If you have a complex defect, you have an increased risk of heart failure, stroke, and developing heart rhythm problems and/or heart infections. People with complex defects like valve atresia, tetralogy of Fallot, transposition of the great arteries, or abnormal ventricles need to be evaluated in a specialized center for adult congenital heart disease on a regular basis. Regardless of the complexity of the defect, most people who actively manage their congenital heart disease have few or no ongoing symptoms or limitations on what they can do physically.
Most specialists feel that the single most important thing individuals with congenital heart disease can do is learn about their condition so that they can effectively manage it. No adult should rely on parents, a primary care doctor, or anyone else to manage the disease for them.
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