Novel materials and devices in the transcatheter management of congenital heart diseases--the future comes slowly (part 1).

Management of congenital defects of the heart and great vessels constitutes the largest part of paediatric cardiology practice. Most of these defects require interventions, either corrective or palliative, to guarantee patient survival, symptom relief and/or better quality of life. Interventions can be performed either surgically or transcatheter percutaneously. The surgical repairs are invasive, with long-term results often being suboptimal for complex lesions and after the use of grafts, especially in small patients. Nowadays, various transcatheter devices allow much less invasive percutaneous management in some carefully selected patients with congenital heart disease. However, the currently available materials and devices are only suitable for a small proportion of children, while the majority of young patients with cardiac defects still need surgery, as no transcatheter alternatives exist. There are, however, numerous new biomaterials, devices and technologies that have the potential to expand the transcatheter approach to a much broader spectrum of congenital cardiovascular lesions and conditions. In this three-part review, we describe new advances in transcatheter devices and materials, which promise to extend the application of the percutaneous approach to younger and more complex patient groups with congenital heart disease. The first part focuses on new possibilities for the transcatheter treatment of vascular stenoses in growing patients and the closure of intracardiac defects.