TY - JOUR
T1 - The care for adults with congenital heart disease
T2 - Organization and function of a grown-up congenital heart disease unit
AU - Giamberti, Alessandro
AU - Varrica, Alessandro
AU - Pomè, Giuseppe
AU - Micheletti, Angelo
AU - Negura, Diana
AU - Ranucci, Marco
AU - Carminati, Mario
AU - Frigiola, Alessandro
AU - Chessa, Massimo
PY - 2016/4/28
Y1 - 2016/4/28
N2 - Thanks to the improvement of surgical and interventional cardiac procedures, the majority of children with congenital heart defects (CHD) can now be expected to reach adulthood. The number of adults with congenital heart disease (ACHD) will inevitably increase, and recent data affirm that in Europe, we are actually faced with an estimated patient population of 2.3 million. These patients, particularly the adults with moderate and highly complex CHD, can be very difficult to manage, and should be treated in few experienced and specialized 'grown-up congenital heart disease' (GUCH) units, concentrating resources, patients, funding, and professional experiences. On 2000, we created a GUCH unit in our hospital that rapidly became a referral centre in Italy for number and complexity of patients treated. The present study is a presentation of how is organized our GUCH unit and a brief overview of our more recent experience with ACHD patients.
AB - Thanks to the improvement of surgical and interventional cardiac procedures, the majority of children with congenital heart defects (CHD) can now be expected to reach adulthood. The number of adults with congenital heart disease (ACHD) will inevitably increase, and recent data affirm that in Europe, we are actually faced with an estimated patient population of 2.3 million. These patients, particularly the adults with moderate and highly complex CHD, can be very difficult to manage, and should be treated in few experienced and specialized 'grown-up congenital heart disease' (GUCH) units, concentrating resources, patients, funding, and professional experiences. On 2000, we created a GUCH unit in our hospital that rapidly became a referral centre in Italy for number and complexity of patients treated. The present study is a presentation of how is organized our GUCH unit and a brief overview of our more recent experience with ACHD patients.
KW - Adult with congenital heart disease
KW - Cardiac surgery
KW - Congenital heart disease
KW - Interventional cardiology
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U2 - 10.1093/eurheartj/suw011
DO - 10.1093/eurheartj/suw011
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84966644139
VL - 18
SP - E15-E18
JO - European Heart Journal, Supplement
JF - European Heart Journal, Supplement
SN - 1520-765X
ER -