Guidelines for pediatric therapeutic cardiac catheterization. A statement for health professionals from the Committee on Congenital Cardiac Defects of the Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young, the American Heart Association.

Abstract

D uring the last few years, pediatric cardiologists have witnessed a dramatic change in the utilization of the cardiac catheterization lab- oratory.1-21 Improved noninvasive diagnostic tech- niques have narrowed indications for diagnostic cardiac catheterizations while the laboratory is now increas- ingly being used for therapeutic procedures. Recently, numerous catheter techniques, increased numbers of persons and centers using these techniques, and the increased number of lesion types thought to be amena- ble to catheter therapy have caused concern about the appropriateness of some applications of pediatric ther- apeutic cardiac catheterization.