Real-time three-dimensional ultrasound - a valuable new tool in preoperative assessment of complex congenital cardiac disease.

Evaluating complex cardiac defects in small children preoperatively requires multiple diagnostic procedures including echocardiography, and also invasive methods such as cardiac catheterisation, computer-tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. We assessed the complex anatomy of the atrioventricular valves in atrioventricular septal defect using bedside real-time three-dimensional echocardiography and comparing these results to the anatomic findings at the time of operative intervention.