In the 50 years since Gross (1938) obliterated a patent ductus arteriosus, congenital cardiac surgery has come of age, synchronized with the world explosion in microtechnology and space age materials. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw Barratt-Boyes pioneering complete intracardiac repairs on infants with congenital heart disease employing modifications of the Kyoto technique (Shirotani) for profound hypothermia and circulatory arrest. The past 10-15 years have been marked by the more widespread dissemination of increasingly safe techniques, and the application of progressive incremental refinement to the entire management package of complex congenital heart disease. Many innovative methods and concepts have been added to the therapeutic armamentarium of the congenital heart team. Currently, transplantation adds the prospect of "second chance", and in the future may constitute preferred primary management in certain complex forms of congenital heart disease. In the Western world the concept of "frequency sensitivity" and the value of rationalizing congenital heart surgery facilities, such that a single unit manages a population of 8-12 million, is established, though not necessarily widely accepted and acted upon. High-volume, low-risk units emerge such that operative mortality, despite the high acceptance rate of complex problems and high rates of neonatal and infant complex repairs, has dropped below 5%. Paradoxically, the so-called simple closed surgery (neonatal coarctation, shunts and other palliative procedures in complex congenital heart disease) retain relatively high risk and must be regarded as one of the areas of challenge over the next 5-10 years.