The history of medicine is characterized by innovation, through the application of the latest in biomedical science and technology to the bedside. In many ways, using approved medical devices for off-label indications exemplifies this spirit of innovation. Yet there are clear drawbacks to this practice, which include the safety to the patients themselves, the entrepreneurial nature of industry ...

BACKGROUND Surgical cutdown for access to the common carotid artery provides a more direct route for certain pediatric cardiac interventions and avoids femoral artery injury in small infants. The safety of percutaneous carotid access (PCA) in children is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS Retrospective review of PCA at Texas Children's Hospital and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. From July 2006 t...

During the last 10 years, there have been major technological achievements in pediatric interventional cardiology. In addition, there have been several advances in cardiac imaging, especially in 3-dimensional imaging of echocardiography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and cineangiography. Therefore, more types of congenital heart diseases can be treated in the cardiac catheter...

Copies: This document is available on the World Wide Web sites of the Society of Pediatric Cardiology Training Program Directors (http://spctpd.com), the American College of Cardiology (www.acc.org), the American Academy of Pediatrics, (www.aap.org), and the American Heart Association (my.americanheart.org). A copy of the document is available at http://my.americanheart.org/statements by select...

BACKGROUND The Congenital Cardiac Catheterization Project on Outcomes (C3PO) was established to develop outcome assessment methods for pediatric catheterization. METHODS AND RESULTS Six sites have been recording demographic, procedural and immediate outcome data on all cases, using a web-based system since February 2007. A sample of data was independently audited for validity and data complet...

The last decade saw a dramatic change in the management of congenital heart defects. The introduction and development in echocardiography and Doppler modalities enable definitive diagnosis of congenital lesions without cardiac catheterization. At the same time, new therapeutic procedures for congenital defects using the catheter as a channel for different procedures were developed. These therap...