Pediatric Cardiac Surgery

Choosing Children’s National for Cardiac (Heart) Surgery

When you’re researching pediatric heart surgeons, you want someone who is at the cutting-edge of pediatric surgical techniques, but who will also care for your child’s overall well-being. At Children’s National, we offer this level of ‘whole child care,’ focusing on your child’s physical, emotional and mental well-being.  Our team provides your family with the following:

• Surgical expertise. Our surgeons use advanced surgical procedures, including the most up-to-date cardiopulmonary bypass techniques. Our approach to care results in shorter lengths of stay for patients after surgery. 
• Multidisciplinary care. It takes a team to care for a child. As a major pediatric academic medical center, we also offer care in the more than 40 subspecialties (neurology, nutrition, gastroenterology, etc.) that your child may need before, during and after heart surgery. You can be assured that no matter what service, study or specialized care your child needs, we have an expert who will join your pediatric heart surgery team to offer the best, most comprehensive care possible.
• Dedicated anesthesiologists. We have one of the only programs in the nation with an anesthesiology team dedicated exclusively to pediatric heart patients. Our board-certified anesthesiologists are available 24/7 for your child’s anesthesia and pain management needs. In fact, we are the only center in the region that guarantees that a pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist will be available for your child at all times. In addition, our unique Cardiac Procedure Recovery Unit provides individualized care for patients before, during and after undergoing anesthesia.
• Advanced technology and research. We’ve incorporated the most sophisticated technology available into our procedure rooms and Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (Cardiac ICU). When children need open heart surgery, we often need to place them on a cardiopulmonary bypass machine. During the surgery, the bypass machine takes over the function of the lungs and heart. This can carry a risk of neurological damage. During heart surgery, our heart surgeons use advanced measures based on the latest research—some of which they discovered—to protect your child’s brain and neurological development during surgery. Learn more about this work from the Ishibashi Laboratory.
• Cardiac ICU rooms for parents. We know that you want to be with your child as much as possible to provide comfort and support. With that in mind, we designed extra-large rooms in our Cardiac ICU, with plenty of room for one or both parents to stay with their child. Learn more about the Cardiac ICU at Children’s National.

Cardiac (Heart) Surgery Procedures

Children’s National offers a comprehensive surgical program that includes the full range of procedures available for the treatment of pediatric cardiac disease and congenital heart defects. Our physicians pioneered many of these procedures and have extensive experience performing them, leading to some of the best heart surgery outcomes in the nation. Procedures we perform, include:

• Aortic valve stenosis repair
• Arterial switch operation (ASO)
• Atrial septal defect and ventricular septal defect closures
• Fontan procedure
• Glenn procedure
• Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome hybrid procedure
• Neonatal Ross procedure
• Nikaidoh procedure
• PAVC repair
• Tetralogy of Fallot repair
• Transposition of great arteries repair