Kommentar zu den neuen Leitlinien (2010) der Europäischen Gesellschaft für Kardiologie (ESC) zum Management von Erwachsenen mit angeborenen Herzfehlern (EMAH)

The new Guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology for the Management of Grown-up Congenital Heart (GUCH) Disease, published in 2010, have been endorsed by the German Cardiac Society and the pocket version has been translated. The present comments outline the concept of the new document, specific German aspects are highlighted and the most important differences compared to the previous version published in 2003 and to the guidelines published by the German-speaking societies are summarized. Finally, the document is compared to the recent guidelines of the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. The new ESC guidelines should be the new standard for Germany together with the German recommendations for the organization of care for GUCH and the accreditation in the subspecialty GUCH. Compared to previous documents the guidelines provide more comprehensive information with more precise recommendations that should help to improve the quality of care.