Cardiac Arrhythmias And Long-Term Prognosis In Adult Patients With Congenital Heart Diseases

This review article highlights the increasing importance of cardiac arrhythmias for the long-term prognosis of adults with congenital heart diseases (ACHD). Tachyarrhythmias are the most frequent reason for an emergency hospital admission of young ACHD. The lifetime incidence of supraventricular and ventricular tachyarrhythmias in these patients increases steadily with age. In general, it can be stated that these patients have an increased risk by a factor of 2 compared to the normal population of severe complications, such as stroke, heart failure and the necessity for surgical or catheter interventions. In cases of ventricular tachyarrhythmia there is the risk of sudden cardiac death.