Ultra Echo Scan

CHD is the most common class of birth defect, affecting 8 in 1000 live births, with approximately one-quarter of these children needing intervention in the 1rst year of life.

Advances in congenital heart surgery have improved survival rates for neonates and infants with CHD, and efforts are now being made to optimize perinatal and preoperative factors to promote improvements in outcomes. A diagnosis of CHD before birth allows prenatal counseling and coordination of delivery at an experienced cardiac center. Evidence now suggests that a prenatal diagnosis may lead to bene!ts in early postnatal status and outcomes in certain critical forms of CHD

Congenital heart defects occur in about 1% of live-born newborns, and a screening echocardiogram performed on all newborns would be a great diagnostic tool. Unfortunately, due to the lack of specialists and appropriate equipment in all neonatology centers, the introduction of this examination as mandatory is impossible, although such an idea is very interesting (Prof. Leslaw Szydlowski, MD, Chair and Clinic of Pediatric Cardiology, Silesian Medical University in Katowice).