Interventional cardiac catheterization.

The use of the pediatric cardiac catheterization laboratory as a therapeutic modality has become standard practice in most pediatric cardiology centers. Accordingly, reviewing the results of this form of therapy has become very important. This review focuses on the initial and long-term results of balloon dilation procedures in infants and children. As the efficacy and safety has been proven for these early procedures, dilatation therapy has become available for the critically ill neonate with pulmonary and aortic stenosis. The usefulness of implantable devices for closing abnormal shunt pathways, such as the patent ductus arteriosus and atrial septal defect, has become clear. The importance of both transthoracic color-flow Doppler and transesophageal echocardiography in proper placement and follow-up of these implantable devices is now becoming apparent and also will be evaluated in this review.