Justification: A number of guidelines are available for management of congenital heart diseases from infancy to adult life. However, these guidelines are for patients living in high income countries. Separate guidelines, applicable to Indian children, are required when recommending an intervention for congenital heart diseases, as often these patients present late in the course of the disease and may have co-existing morbidities and malnutrition.
Process: Guidelines emerged following expert deliberations at the National Consensus Meeting on Management of Congenital Heart Diseases in India, held on 10th and 11th of August 2018 at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. The meeting was supported by Children's HeartLink, a non-governmental organization based in Minnesota, USA.
Objectives: To frame evidence based guidelines for (i) indications and optimal timing of intervention in common congenital heart diseases; (ii) follow-up protocols for patients who have undergone cardiac surgery/catheter interventions for congenital heart diseases.
Recommendations: Evidence based recommendations are provided for indications and timing of intervention in common congenital heart diseases, including left-to-right shunts (atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, atrioventricular septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus and others), obstructive lesions (pulmonary stenosis, aortic stenosis and coarctation of aorta) and cyanotic congenital heart diseases (tetralogy of Fallot, transposition of great arteries, univentricular hearts, total anomalous pulmonary venous connection, Ebstein anomaly and others). In addition, protocols for follow-up of post surgical patients are also described, disease wise.