Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement. ANONYMOUS Half of what I'm teaching you is wrong. The problem is that I don't know what half it is. ANONYMOUS Introduction Some of the most challenging forms of congenital…
Introduction The advances made in the management of newborns and infants with all forms of critical congenital heart disease (cCHD) over the past 3 decades have truly been among the triumphs of cardiac care. In all forms of cCHD, nearly…
Introduction For the anatomist and pathologist, the terms “univentricular” and “single” have proven to be among the most controversial words used to describe a congenitally malformed heart. Since the mid-1990s, light has begun to emerge at the end of the…
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The first transplantation of a human heart was performed in South Africa in 1967. By the end of the 1970s, transplantation was established as an effective therapy for end-stage cardiac failure. Over the next 30 years, improvements in donation and…
Introduction The use of long-term mechanical circulatory support (MCS), predominately in the form of ventricular assist devices (VADs), has undergone a major transformation in the past 15 years. In the early 2000s, device use was uncommon. Support was typically for…
Introduction Chronic heart failure has long been recognized as a cause of considerable mortality and morbidity in adults. The early recognition of heart failure in the 17th and 18th centuries was that of edema, anasarca, and dyspnea, which was appropriately…
Background Acute circulatory failure is a clinical syndrome characterized by inadequate effective blood flow and reduced tissue perfusion with decreased delivery of oxygen to the capillaries. The reduction in oxygen delivery leads to impaired oxidative metabolism, lactic acidosis, and cell…
Introduction Over the past several decades there have been significant improvements in the care of patients diagnosed with cancer, particularly in the pediatric age range. There are more than 15.5 million survivors of cancer in the United States, and in…
History of Classification of the Cardiomyopathies Cardiomyopathies are a heterogeneous group of diseases of the myocardium ( Box 61.1 ). They were initially described as “heart muscle disease of unknown cause” by the World Health Organization/International Society and Federation of…