Strain in Complex Congenital Heart Disease in Infants and Children

Varying degrees of heart failure is common in infants with complex single ventricular heart disease. Sometimes the heart failure is progressive without a clear etiology and unresponsive to intense pharmacotherapy creating a critical management dilemma. These infants typically share a common history of repeated and lengthy intensive care unit (ICU) admissions and they often require temporizing measures of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), or ventricular assist device (VAD) before progressing to cardiac transplantation or death.