Adults with acyanotic heart defects seen in the 1980s will be unlike those of the past and probably those of the future. These defects are identified and surgically repaired at a much earlier age. This group of patients will benefit from improved diagnostic and surgical techniques. The left-to-right shunts will be corrected, thereby avoiding chamber enlargement or hypertrophy, increased pressures on the right side of the heart, increases in pulmonary circulation, and risk of pulmonary hypertension.
