[Current treatment protocol in cardiovascular diseases in childhood. 1: Heart failure, diseases in the neonatal period, congenital heart defects. 2: Arrhythmias, carditis, cardiomyopathies, shock, hypertension].

It is given an overview about actual strategies of the treatment of children suffering from heart diseases. Partly proven drugs are given in an optimized doses e.g. digoxin and digitoxin where as other new drugs and therapeutic principles are introduced e. g. catecholamines and vasodilator agents, antiarrhythmic drugs or electrotherapy and antiarrhythmic surgery. Various functional disturbances of the cardiovascular system can occur in the newborn period. New diagnostic principles especially echocardiography with doppler sonography, holter monitoring and exercise testing have lead to better therapeutic regimens. Heart catheterizations have new therapeutic tools like the balloon valvuloplasty of a stenotic pulmonic valve. At least the advances of cardiac surgery have lead to a shift of the time of correction to early childhood. Two step interventions are more and more removed and the related children and their families will have a better outcome and a better life quality.