Cincinnati Children's Provides Premier Heart Services
CINCINNATI -- Pediatric heart surgery, still considered a high-risk specialty, is measured according to mortality statistics, and the statistics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center are better than the national average.
The best programs in the United States have a mortality rate of 3 to 5 percent, while the division of Cardiology at Cincinnati Children's has a mortality rate of just 2 percent, according to Peter Manning, MD, director of cardiothoracic surgery at Cincinnati Children's.
Most heart problems in children are the result of the heart developing improperly during the first two months in the womb. Those defects can be a hole in the wall between the heart's chambers, known as atrial or ventricular septal defects. Depending on their location, these holes are among the most common heart problems and can be repaired with one surgery. Or the defects can be complex, as when an entire pumping chamber or valve is missing or malformed. These problems often require multiple surgeries to reconstruct the heart.
In the last decade or two, Cincinnati Children's cardiology specialists have performed corrective operations sooner in life. Twenty to 25 percent of our procedures are done on children under 1 month of age, and 60 to 70 percent are done on youngsters under 1 year.
"We've adopted the philosophy that heart problems should be fixed as soon as possible. That way, the blood vessels and the heart may have a better chance to recover and grow normally, and we can avoid long-term developmental and cardiopulmonary problems," explains Manning.
Cincinnati Children's performs more than 400 heart procedures each year. Two-thirds to three-quarters are open-heart procedures, requiring the use of heart-lung bypass to sustain life during surgery. The others do not use heart-lung bypass.
Cincinnati Children's is one of only two Ohio medical centers that perform heart transplants in children.
"We do six to eight transplants a year, similar to most programs in the country. Heart transplants in children are not common. They're a solution for failure of the heart's pumping action, when medicine and other procedures won't work," Manning says.
The success of complex care in newborns at Cincinnati Children's is made possible because of a multidisciplinary team of specialists in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU), anesthesia, surgery, cardiology, respiratory therapy and other disciplines. The CICU is the only one of its kind in a five-state region.
"With the CICU, we can deliver the highest complexity care for the sickest kids. Specialists certified in both cardiology and critical care direct the unit, working closely with other critical care specialists, highly trained nurses and respiratory therapists. Cardiac surgeons, other cardiologists and fellows training in cardiology and critical care round out the team," Manning says.
To help families learn more about the heart problems affecting their children, Cincinnati Children's created The Heart Center Encyclopedia. The encyclopedia is an innovative, online tool used by families and primary care physicians. The Heart Center Encyclopedia offers straightforward information on the problems we see and the way we correct them. The informative site received nearly 60,000 visits in a recent four-month period and is generating inquiries from families around the world.
Contact Information
Amy Caruso, 513-636-5637, amy.caruso@cchmc.org
