Copyright © 2003 by Sociedade Brasileira de Pediatria

Objective: Present a care for routine for children who were submitted to a cardiac surgery. Source of data: Realized a bibliographic revision through searching sites (Medscape, MD Consult, PubMed), analyzing the suggested conducts by various services out of Brazil and comparing with the routine of the Hospital Infantil Pequeno Príncipe, in Curitiba, where approximately eight thousand cardiac surgeries were realized in children, from 1977 to April 2003. Summary of the findings: The referred service is a reference in Paraná State and neighbor states. The evolution of diagnosis conditions, the prepare of the clinic and surgical team, a better equipped Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with a more advanced monitoring, ICU team with trained people in all areas to do cardiac surgery postoperative, adequate hospital structure offering advanced care for in all pediatrics correlate specialties, make the result of surgical interventions realized in children with congenital and acquired heart diseases especially in newborn and babies with complex heart diseases, to present a sensitive improvement when compared with past years. Conclusions: Children with heart diseases, specially the complex ones, must be sent to a centre of reference place, where there are conditions to a global care for before, during and after the surgery. J Pediatr (Rio J) 2003;79(Suppl 2):S213-S22: Cardiac surgery, post-operative care, children. Immediate post-operative car