About the Heart Center

A Technologically Advanced Team

In recent years, the Heart Center staff’s expertise has inspired new developments in the use of echocardiography, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, ventricular assist devices and interventional cardiac catheterization.

Easier Echocardiograms

Until the creation of the Children’s Hospital Telemedicine Network in 1996, any child needing an echocardiogram to aid in the diagnosis of a cardiac abnormality had to travel to Children’s main campus for the study. Today, children can be assessed without ever having to leave their mother’s side. Children who are born at or live near one of Children’s regional outpatient locations can have their echos performed there and simultaneously reviewed via two-way audiovisual communication lines by cardiologists at the Heart Center.

A Beat Ahead in Cardiothoracic Surgery

For children with congenital heart disease, Children’s cardiothoracic surgeons have more treatment options available than ever before. More than 95 percent of congenital heart disease can be surgically repaired, usually within the first 20 months of life. Through the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, surgeons can prolong young lives as they wait for heart, lung and heart/lung transplants and provide support for infants with severe respiratory problems. Similarly, Children’s cardiothoracic surgeons have begun to use ventricular assist devices as short-term assists for older children awaiting transplants.

Expanding the Use of Cardiac Catheterization

At Children’s Heart Center, cardiac catheterization is not only a diagnostic tool, it is also a therapeutic tool that may decrease the need for open-chest surgery. Using a catheter, cardiologists can stretch narrow valves, create or enlarge necessary septal defects (holes), close problematic septal defects or block abnormal blood vessels. For example, in one procedure developed by Children’s pediatric cardiologist Sang Park, MD, a catheter containing a small blade creates small tears in the wall between the upper chambers of the heart. For some patients, this can help the flow of blood through the heart. Balloon aortic valvotomy using a carotid artery approach is another catheterization procedure developed at Children’s that has a high success rate treating critical aortic valvar stenosis in neonates.