ABSTRACT
The overall picture of congenital heart disease has changed. Many more patients are progressing to adult life with both treated and untreated congenital heart disease compared with a few years ago. Before the years of antibiotics in particular, patients with congenital heart disease were blue or cyanosed, and seldom lived beyond the age of about 20. Now many patients, even with quite severe congenital heart disease, can live into their 50s and 60s.
