Repair of complete atrioventricular septal defect: close to the moon? From giant leap for the medical community to small steps for our patients

Abstract

Outstanding low mortality has been achieved in the last 10 years for almost all types of congenital cardiac repair. If the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s represented times of exceptional innovation, with a giant leap from palliative surgery to the attainment of successful complex repairs, then the current era is a time of perfectionism, with goals of achieving very low morbidity and mortality, in incremental small steps, through technically ideal surgery and advances in overall intensive care and patient management.