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Heart Surgery
Surgery is used to treat a wide range of heart defects. Surgeries may range from the simple - such as closing a hole or tying off a vessel - to the complex - such as switching vessels or repairing heart valves.
Many heart operations are designed to restore the circulation in the heart to as normal a level as possible so a child can live a long and active life.
Complex heart defects require various surgeries to enable the heart to work the best that it can.
Children who have had heart operations will need regular visits to a cardiologist throughout their life.
Why are heart surgeries done?
Many heart defects can be fixed with cardiac catheterization procedures, but some conditions still require surgery.
Heart operations are commonly used to close holes in the heart, such as:
Other less-common operations include the Ross procedure (a surgery to replace a blocked or leaking aortic valve), heart transplants and ventricular assist device (VAD) implantation.
Some children are born with complex heart defects that prevent one of the heart's two ventricles from working, such as hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
These children require a series of operations:
- As a newborn, the child will have the Norwood operation
- When the child is about five months old, she will have the Glenn shunt procedure
- When she is between three and four years old, she will have the Fontan procedure
The Children's Heart Center uses the most advanced techniques, and we routinely achieve very good results.
What's special about the experience at Children's?
Our surgeons perform hundreds of different heart procedures. We performed a heart transplant on a baby less than two weeks old, the youngest infant to have a heart transplant in the Pacific Northwest.
Our two heart surgeons perform about 300 surgeries a year, and they almost always operate together, a unique practice among surgeons. We are dedicated to a practice that reduces human error and increases positive outcomes.
We involve the family in all aspects of care short of attending the actual surgery. In fact, we routinely record operations and we offer families a DVD that contains the video footage of their child's operation.
Our mechanical circulatory support program includes extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and VAD implantation.
The ECMO machine is a type of heart-lung pump that provides support when a child's heart or lungs fail to work properly or need rest. Children's ECMO program was established in 1990 for treatment of newborns and expanded in 1995 to serve pediatric patients.
The VAD is used when only the heart needs mechanical support. We will soon be the only hospital in the Pacific Northwest to be able to implant a semi-permanent VAD for a child awaiting a heart transplant or other surgical procedure.
This device enables the child to live at home, rather than stay in the hospital, while she waits for surgery.
Who's on the team?
Division Chief of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery and Heart Center Co-Director, Dr. Gordon Cohen has directed the heart surgery team since 2002.
Dr. Lester Permut and Dr. Cohen perform most surgeries together so children benefit from the collaboration of two experienced pediatric heart surgeons.
The heart surgery team at Children's includes pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists, fellows, cardiac nurses, cardiac nurse practitioners, cardiac intensivists and cardiopulmonary perfusionists, who operate the heart-lung machine (also called the bypass machine).