ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION The incidence of congenital heart disease is 0.8% (8/1000) live births (1). These patients have a cardiovascular abnormality that is secondary to an altered embryonic development with abnormal shunting patterns that result in further problems in the structure and function of the cardiovascular system. Currently, there are more adults than children in the United States with congenital heart disease making this chapter of critical importance to the cardiologist (2). Many of these patients with adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) will require additional catheter-based procedures that are either diagnostic to assess the complex anatomy or interventional procedures that allow therapeutic options to the patient. Over the past few decades, with the evolution of noninvasive imaging techniques including real-time 3-D echocardiography as well as magnetic resonance and CT angiography, the catheterization laboratory is now used more often for interventional procedures. The objective of this chapter is to provide the cardiologist with a general overview of complex ACHD and its management options in the congenital cardiac catheterization laboratory.
