Congenital Cardiac Catheterization in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: The International Quality Improvement Collaborative Catheterization Registry.

Background: No published data are available on the patient, procedural characteristics, and outcomes of congenital heart disease (CHD) cardiac catheterization performed in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Objectives: The objective of this study was to describe procedural characteristics and patient outcomes of CHD cardiac catheterizations in LMICs.

Methods: Cases performed between January 2019 and December 2020 from 15 centers in the International Quality Improvement Collaborative Congenital Heart Disease Catheterization Registry (IQIC-CHDCR) data were included.

Perioperative complications in a paediatric cardiac surgery program with limited systemic resources.

Background: The perioperative complications rate in paediatric cardiac surgery, as well as the failure-to-rescue impact, is less known in low- and middle-income countries.

Aim: To evaluate perioperative complications rate, mortality related to complications, different patients' demographics, and procedural risk factors for perioperative complication and post-operative death.

Methods: Risk factors for perioperative complications and operative mortality were assessed in a retrospective single-centre study which included 296 consecutive children undergoing cardiac surgery.

Pediatric Cardiac Service Development Programs for Low- and Middle-Income Countries in Need of Improving or Initiating Local Services.

Pediatric cardiac services are deficient in most of the world. Various estimates are that between 80 and 90% of the world's children do not receive adequate cardiac care for their congenital or acquired heart disease. We began a modest effort in 1992 to assist in the development of pediatric cardiac services in low- and middle-Income countries (LMIC).

Cardiac surgical missions: what works, what does not, where we need to go from here.

Purpose Of Review: Although overall neonatal and infant mortality continues to decrease around the world, years of life lost to congenital heart disease (CHD) rank among the top 10 leading causes for that age group in Latin America, Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Short-term surgical missions (STSMs) continue to be the only resource available in some areas of the world.

Recent Findings: There is a need for better communications between charity organizations and the supported institutions.

Results of international assistance for a paediatric heart surgery programme in a single Ukrainian centre.

Background: Surgery for CHD has been slow to develop in parts of the former Soviet Union. The impact of an 8-year surgical assistance programme between an emerging centre and a multi-disciplinary international team that comprised healthcare professionals from developed cardiac programmes is analysed and presented.Material and methodsThe international paediatric assistance programme included five main components - intermittent clinical visits to the site annually, medical education, biomedical engineering support, nurse empowerment, and team-based practice development.

Reverse Szabo technique for stenting a single major aorto-pulmonary collateral vessel in pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect.

Management of pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect (PA-VSD) in the neonatal period presents numerous challenges. Endovascular stenting of the ductus arteriosus or of a collateral vessel in ductal-dependent pulmonary circulation as an alternative to the Blalock-Taussig (BT) shunt has become increasingly popular in the last decades. The utilization of the reverse Szabo (anchor-wire) technique for single collateral vessel stenting in a case of PA-VSD is described.