Congenital heart disease in adults: the frequency of medical, surgical & obstetrical care.

Congenital cardiovascular disease is common in adults. Any patient seen for medical or surgical care may have some form of underlying congenital cardiac defect. We reviewed Missouri Health Statistics for 2001 and found 28,300 medical, surgical, or obstetrical encounters for patients over the age of 15 with some form of congenital cardiac disease. A subset was studied in detail revealing 80% of encounters involved conditions other than the congenital defect. All ages were represented including the medicare population.