The role of echocardiography in the management of adult patients with congenital heart disease following operative treatment

Treatment of congenital heart diseases has significantly advanced during the last few decades. Due to improving cardiac surgical techniques and perioperative care, many children—who would have been considered to be incurable before—survive to adulthood (1). Surgical techniques include palliative treatments performed so that the patient can survive, and curative methods performed to restore complete anatomical or hemodynamic status. Recently, curative surgeries performed at the earliest possible are considered to be the standard procedure (2). Improved survival rates result in more adult patients with congenital heart disease who present at the adult cardiologist from paediatric cardiology care. By the 21st century, there are more adult patients with congenital heart diseases than children (3). The adult cardiologist should know the disease, its natural course, and the principle of the applied surgical method and the potential long-term complications of adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) patients for optimal therapy. In addition, adequate results may be provided only if the patient’s condition is evaluated by the proper imaging modality. Therefore, the treating physician should know the benefits, disadvantages and clinical indications of the certain imaging modality. Selecting the proper imaging modality is essential in determining the severity of the clinical problem and the necessary interventions (2). In current clinical practice, the most often used non-invasive imaging method in this case is echocardiography. Ultrasound methods and some common congenital heart diseases will be reviewed below. As most disorders described in this review affect the right heart, the echocardiography section of this article will mostly consist of information regarding the echocardiography of the right heart