Interventional management of congenital heart disease: integrating perspectives for a shared future

The comprehensive management of patients with congenital heart disease is one of the major challenges in contemporary cardiology. In its early stages, the management of these patients was based primarily on diagnosis and palliative care. Afterwards, the goal shifted to ensuring survival, and, currently, the challenge is for patients to reach adulthood with good quality of life, minimizing morbidity associated with their congenital heart condition and prior procedures, while ensuring structured follow-up. The major shift came from 2 parallel revolutions: advances in diagnostic capability and structural heart procedures. Due to developments in echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging, and computed tomography, early and precise diagnosis is now possible—even in utero—allowing clinicians to properly inform families about the diagnosis and prognosis of these conditions. At the same time, surgical advances and, notably, significant progress made in percutaneous coronary interventions have transformed the natural course of this disease. Cardiac catheterization, initially conceived as a diagnostic tool, soon acquired a decisive therapeutic role. In 1953, Rubio Álvarez et al.1 performed the first balloon valvulotomy. A decade later, Rashkind and Miller2 described atrial septostomy. These milestones marked the beginning of percutaneous coronary intervention, first as a palliative therapy and later as an established therapeutic option. Currently, many patients...