Background

Each year approximately 1,400 children are born in the Netherlands with a heart defect. Prognosis and life expectancy of these patients have greatly improved over the past decades, especially as a result of the development of new operative techniques. As a consequence of the successes of cardiac surgery, the majority of these children now reach adulthood. This implies the emergence of a new category of patients: adults who were born with a heart defect (congenital heart disease). A rough estimate of the current number of adults with congenital heart disease in the Netherlands is between 20,000 to 25,000 patients. This number is growing steadily at a yearly rate of approximately 5%. In addition, there are an estimated 25,000 children with congenital heart disease. Thus, the total number of living patients born with a cardiac defect is approximately 50,000 individuals.

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