History

In 1989, the Montreal Heart Institute established an adult congenital cardiac disease clinic in response to a request made by pediatric cardiologists at Ste-Justine Hospital, who expressed a desire to establish ties with the adult cardiology milieu. In fact, owing to several factors - the progress made in the field of pre-natal care, the advent of genetic screening, improved socio-economic conditions and the development of pediatric surgery and interventional hemodynamics - some 85% of neonates with congenital heart defects now reach adult age.

An estimated 88,000 adults in Canada are living with a congenital heart defect. Approximately one quarter of these patients live in Quebec; this means that between 20 and 30 thousand Quebec adults have a congenital heart defect. It is generally agreed that roughly 50% of these patients require specialized care. Their pathologies are varied, often rendered more complex by previous surgical procedures, and their aftercare requires expertise that is not available in general cardiology centres, in view of the relative rarity of these cases. The MHI now offers this level of expertise to more than 2,000 patients, making it the largest clinic of its kind in Quebec and the second largest in Canada. Close to half of patients now followed at the MHI have been transferred from Ste-Justine Hospital over the years while the others have been referred by cardiologists throughout Quebec.