Objective:

This article sets out to review the concept of critical congenital heart diseases, as well as to describe the consolidation process with pulse oximetry as a tool for their screening, and to call attention to the need to implement this in low income countries like Colombia.

Methods:

A search was made in the PubMed-MEDLINE and Google Scholar databases using the MeSH terms: “Congenital Abnormalities”, “Heart Defects, Congenital'” “Oximetry” and “Neonatal Screening”, crossing the term “Heart Defects, Congenital” with the rest, by means of the Boolean operator AND. Publications since 1992 were included and article were not excluded due to methodology or language.

Results:

Around one-quarter (25%) of live newborns with a congenital heart disease are critical, and pulse oximetry is an effective alternative for its early recognition. A review was carried out on the subject, mentioning studies with large sample sizes that have allowed the consolidation of pulse oximetry as screening tool for critical congenital heart diseases. The approach used in the USA in this respect is described, as well as calling attention to the need to implement this screening method in Colombia.

Conclusions:

There is evidence for the introduction of pulse oximetry as a screening test for critical congenital heart disease defects. No official initiatives have been presented in Colombia to generalise the practice.

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