Quality of life after surgery for congenital heart disease

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Modern surgical approaches have improved the survival rate for children with congenital heart defects. It has been reported that because of this success, we now have more adults than children with congenital heart disease in the United States. It is quite important to know if these surviving patients do well, or if they have impairment of their quality of life. In this issue of The Journal, Landolt et al report on a study of quality of life in adolescents who have had open heart surgery for congenital heart disease. They found that many dimensions of self-reported health-related quality of life were impaired. In addition to the self-reports, parents rated cognitive function as diminished in their children. These results emphasize that surgically repairing congenital heart defects may not be enough. We need to find ways to improve outcomes, either through better surgical approaches or treatment strategies implemented during growth and development after surgery.