Neonatal screening to detect critical congenital cardiac disease. A revolution in pediatrics

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There is solid evidence that demonstrate the usefulness of routine oxygen saturation testing in every apparently healthy newborn after 24 hours of life and before 48 hours. This procedure is known as “newborn screening for critical congenital heart disease” and serves to detect timely those congenital structural cardiac malformations with hypoxema, such as heart syndrome, pulmonary valve atresia, truncus arteriosus, total anomalous pulmonary vein connection, complete transposition of the great arteries, tetralogy of Fallot and tricuspid valve atresia. This test has been included in the mandatory neonatal screening panel of many countries and its generalization all over the world, seems imminent.