The provision of surgical care for children with cardiac disease: the Jamaican experience--an 18-year review.

The aim of this article is to review the local experience over the last 18 years (1994-2011) in providing surgical intervention for children with heart conditions in Jamaica. Eight hundred and sixty-three children received cardiac surgery during this period, 441 were done with the assistance of visiting overseas teams and 422 by the local surgical teams. The majority of cases receiving cardiac surgery were for congenital heart defects; however 3% of cases were for rheumatic heart disease. The overall survival rate was 94% for the period 1994 to 2008.