ABSTRACT
Introduction Recent developments in fetal echocardiography steadily enhance the accuracy of the diagnosis of congenital heart disease. Consequently, physicians working in the pre-and postnatal diagnostic fields increasingly encounter the problem of the incorporation of the new perinatal findings in the therapy of complex cardiac defects. Therefore, physicians working in the area of prenatal diagnostics are increasingly confronted with the pre-and postnatal physiology and alternatives for therapy of complex cardiac defects. All of these developments mandate, at all stages, the pediatric cardiologists’ close cooperation with the patient’s parents, obstetricians, cardiac surgeons, and neonatologists. This chapter deals with the importance of perinatal adaptation of the circulation, and the available choices of drug and interventional therapy of congenital heart diseases. Chapter 57 deals in more detail with the options of neonatal cardiac surgery.
