Guidelines of the Spanish Society of Cardiology. Requirements and equipment of invasive techniques in pediatric cardiology: Clinical application

Invasive techniques in pediatric cardiology have experienced a big change s ince the 80's. The growth of non-invasive methods for diagnosing congenital heart defects has made the number of diagnostic cathaterizations decrease remarkably. On the other hand, the notable development of pediatric interventional cathete rization techniques will allow that, in the near future, the number of ther apeutic catheterizations overcomes the diagnostic ones in our country. The former are more difficult and dangerous, so they require experienced and sk illed hands and more economic resources. This chapter is divided in three main sections: I) Requirements and equipme nt needed fur pediatric invasive techniques; II) Current indications, contr aindications and complications of the diagnostic catheterization, and III) Techniques, indications and results of pediatric therapeutic catheterizatio n: current state. Likewise, we state the suitability or not for these thera peutic procedures in different cardiac anomalies.