title: "Functionally" univentricular hearts: impact of pre-natal diagnosis.
abstract: Within the last few decades the pre-natal echocardiographic diagnosis of congenital heart defects has made substantial progresses, particularly for the identification of complex malformation. "Functionally" univentricular hearts categorize a huge variety of heart malformations. Since no one of the patients with these congenital heart defects can ever undergo a bi-ventricular type of repair, early recognition and decision-making from the neonatal period are required in order to allow for appropriate multiple-step diagnostic and treatment procedures, either of interventional cardiology and/or surgery, on the pathway of "univentricular" heart. In the literature strong disagreements exist about the potential impact of the pre-natal diagnosis on the early and late outcomes of complex congenital heart defects. This review of the recent reports has been undertaken to better understand the impact of pre-natal diagnosis in "functionally" univentricular hearts taking into consideration the following topics: pre-natal screening, outcomes and survival, general morbidity, neurologic and developmental consequences, pregnancy management and delivery planning, resources utilization and costs/benefits issues, ethical implications, parents counseling, and interruption of pregnancy versus treatment.
authors.affiliation: School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia , Kubang Kerian , Malaysia.
authors.forename: Antonio Francesco
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Corno
keywords: hypoplastic left heart syndrome; peri-natal management; pre-natal diagnosis; surgical outcomes; univentricular heart