Children’s National Heart Institute includes Cardiology, Cardiac Surgery, Cardiac Intensive Care, and Cardiac Anesthesia. Children’s National Heart Institute’s Cardiac Surgery team brings together the region’s best cardiac surgeons, anesthesiologists, cardiologists, and cardiac intensivists. Our accomplished team is led by Richard Jonas, MD, a pioneer in complex congenital heart surgery and early primary repair.
Children’s National Heart Institute is one of the most rapidly growing pediatric cardiac surgical programs in the country.
The Children’s team performs corrective procedures for newborns, infants, children, and adults. Children’s world-class cardiac surgeons perform the full range of surgical procedures, from the simplest to the most complex, including complex reconstructions within the first few days of life. In particular, the team avoids palliative procedures, thereby optimizing patient outcomes and minimizing overall mortality and morbidity.
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Our surgeons use advanced surgical procedures, including the most up-to-date cardiopulmonary bypass techniques. One-third of our surgeries for congenital heart defects are performed on children under three months, leading to a repair that grows with the child, quicker recovery and less stress on the family.
Our team cares for some of the most complex cases in the world, and has one of the best success rates for cardiac surgery in the nation. Overall survival for procedures performed at Children’s is 98% with open survival of 96.8% and closed survival of 98.5%.
Our team is leading research in using safer strategies for bypass. This research and practical application has resulted in improved outcomes, quicker intensive care unit recovery, shorter lengths-of-stay, fewer neurological injuries, and better long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes for our cardiac patient. Our techniques aim to offer patients the best neurological outcomes possible. We want our patients to thrive, not just survive.
Our pediatric cardiac surgeons perform more than 500 cardiac surgeries on infants, children, and adolescents each year. Chief Surgeon Richard Jonas is a pioneer of corrective surgery and has trained a large number of cardiothoracic surgery residents and fellows during his career. Dr. Jonas has also helped in the development of a number of international cardiac surgical programs around the world and is the author of the leading pediatric cardiovascular surgery textbook in the field, Comprehensive Surgical Management of Congenital Heart Disease.
The Institute is one of only a few programs in the country with a specialized team of pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists who provide anesthesia and pain management for patients with congenital heart disease.
Children's has a Cardiac Intensive Care Unit devoted solely to providing critical care services to children with heart conditions, an inpatient unit exclusively for cardiac patients and state-of-the art cardiac catheterization facility. The team also provides specialized anesthesia program with anesthesiologists trained specifically in pediatrics.
Our surgical team works in concert with Children’s cardiologists who provide preoperative and postoperative diagnostic assessments and therapeutic interventions. A group of dedicated pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists provide preoperative evaluations, as well as sedation, anesthesia and pain management.
Postoperative care is provided in a dedicated Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) by pediatric cardiac intensivists and pediatric cardiac critical care nurses and therapists. After their CICU stay, patients are transferred to a dedicated step-down cardiac unit where they are cared for by a team of expert physicians and advanced practice nurse practitioners. Children’s multidisciplinary collaborations result in highly-coordinated patient care and shorter lengths-of stay for patients following congenital heart surgery.
Children’s cardiac surgery team has some of the most coveted surgical results in the country. In 2006, more than 500 patients underwent surgery, with more than 300 patients undergoing open heart surgery utilizing the heart-lung machine (cardiopulmonary bypass). The team’s survival statistics for 2006 include:
Surgery
Number of Casess
Survivall
Cardiopulmonary bypass
cases
311
96.8%
Non-cardiopulmonary bypass
cases
205
98.5%
Aortic coarctation
repair
17
100%
Arterial switch
procedure
14
100%
Arterial septal defect repair
(includes primum ASD and sinus venosus ASD)
25
100%
Complete atrioventricular canal repair
12
100%
Epicardial pacemaker implantation
14
100%
Fontan procedure
21
100%
Glenn procedure
(excludes Kawashima procedure)
27
100%
Norwood
procedure
20
85%
Patent ductus arteriosus
ligation
43
***
Right ventricular outflow tract
reconstruction
17
100%
Tetralogy of Fallot
repair
40
100%
Vascular ring
repair
12
100%
Ventricular septal defect
repair
49
100%
Results are not risk-adjusted and include low-birth-weight infants weighing less than 2 kg. Procedures with ten or more cases performed are included. The data is submitted annually to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ Congenital Heart Surgery National Database.
*** There were 5 mortalities among the 43 cases of patent ductus arteriosus ligation, all due to complications of prematurity not related to the surgical procedure. These have been excluded from mortality statistics in accordance with the guidelines of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.
The cardiac surgery team at Children’s National is dedicated to providing a family-centered environment for each patient. Learn more about surgeries at Children’s and the resources we offer to all of patients and families.
