Congenital heart disease; comments regarding incidence and natural history.

The incidence of congenital heart disease is approximately 1 per cent of all live births. Approximately 60 per cent of patients who die of congenital heart disease do so at less than two years of age. Very few patients with such lesions live beyond 45 years at the very most. In about 70 per cent of patients who are born with cardiac anomalies, the lesions are either of kinds that are already being operated upon successfully or for which operations are now being attempted and often are helpful.