General ServicesView some of our most popular services requested and see why we are among the very best.
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| High Risk Obstetrics | Pediatric Cardiovascular Services | Trauma | Neurology | ||||
Pediatric Cardiovascular Services |  |
Pediatric Cardiac Care
The Children’s Heart Center at Holtz Children’s Hospital is home to a world-renowned team of pediatric cardiology specialists, including diagnosticians, cardiothoracic surgeons, anesthesiologists, perfusionists and advanced practice nurses. Our state-of-the-art center provides medical care to children with all types of heart problems. We believe in a collaborative approach that includes parents and families so that our team of pediatric cardiologists can create customized treatment plans to meet each child’s individual needs.
The Children’s Heart Center at Holtz Children’s Hospital offers an extensive list of services, including those listed here. Please click on the links to the right to read more
Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory
The Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory offers the latest equipment and tests to diagnose various types of heart conditions, re-evaluate previously repaired heart defects, and obtain biopsies of the heart muscle, which can be used to determine rejection of a transplanted heart.
Interventional cardiologists in our lab are trained to perform many procedures on children, which once were only able to be done with open or closed heart surgery. These less-invasive procedures require shorter hospital stays and allow children to recover more rapidly.
Our newly expanded CICU, completed at the end of 2008, features two operating rooms and a catheterization lab specifically designed for pediatric patients, as well as an area for parents to eat and shower, a computer lab where parents can access the Internet to research their child’s condition or keep in touch with family, a recreational area for the patient’s siblings, and a quiet room for parents to talk or discuss treatment options with physicians.
Advanced Practice Nursing
To make your experience at the Children’s Heart Center as efficient, stress-free, and comfortable as possible, two nurse practitioners and two nurse liaisons work with families and physicians to ensure continuity of care during and after the hospital stay. Nurse practitioners participate in the medical management of our patients and make sure that all needed tests, consultations, hospital appointments and admissions are scheduled in an efficient manner. They are involved in the management of post-operative patients, and continue to provide quality care until the children are able to go home with their parents. Once the child returns home, the nurse practitioners and nurse liaisons continue to maintain contact with the family to provide follow-up care in the clinic setting.
Cardiac Intensive Care Unit
The Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) is a special unit at Holtz Children’s Hospital for infants, children, and young adults undergoing treatment for a variety of heart conditions. Located within the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, the CICU is staffed by a medical team trained in providing intensive care services for our youngest patients. Equipped with state-of-the-art monitoring equipment, the CICU not only provides the best medical care for sick children, but it also accommodates the needs of families and loved ones who are caring for them. The unit has private, comfortable rooms where parents are welcome to stay with their children, allowing them to play an active role in their treatment and recovery.
Cardiothoracic Surgery
The primary focus of The Children's Heart Center is the surgical correction of congenital heart defects in newborns, children and adults. The Center's surgeons perform more a large volume of operations per year, including routine open and closed heart operations on patients with every type of congenital heart defect.
Working in conjunction with pediatric cardiologists, intensivists (hospital specialists who work in intensive care settings), anesthesiologists, and perfusionists, the Center's cardiothoracic surgeons determine which patients are best suited for surgical treatment. We believe that a patient's treatment plan is enhanced when the viewpoints of multiple experts are considered. For this reason, a multidisciplinary team meets at the weekly Pediatric Catheterization Conference, where Children's Heart Center physicians and community cardiologists discuss the management of patients before they are scheduled for surgery. The Children’s Heart Center has dramatically improved patient outcomes throughout the pre- and post-operative period with this team approach.
Our cardiothoracic surgeons and cardiologists believe that the best approach for most children is the complete correction of heart defects early in life. The harmful effects of the heart defect – such as its impact on the child's heart, lung and intellectual development – are minimized or avoided when surgery is performed at the newborn or infant stage of life. Early correction of the heart defect also reduces the impact of chronic illness and care on family members.
Routine corrective surgeries performed in the first few days, weeks, or months of life include ventricular septal defect, atrioventricular canal defect, transposition of the great arteries, truncus arteriosus, tetralogy of Fallot, hypoplastic left heart syndrome, and coarctation of the aorta. While these defects have long and confusing names, they can usually be corrected successfully in most children.
Other children, such as those with single ventricle anomalies, may require staged reconstruction of the heart, which occurs over a period of time. Children's Heart Center cardiologists and surgeons assure that each patient has a customized care plan developed for their particular heart defect. These tailor-made plans are achieved by maintaining close follow-up with the patient and communication with their primary physician and cardiologist.
Pediatric cardiothoracic surgeons collaborate with adult cardiothoracic surgeons to provide state-of -the-art care for children and young adults with acute and chronic heart failure. Services such as heart transplantation or implantation of ventricular assist devices offer treatment options that provide life-saving opportunities for these children.
Echocardiography Laboratory
The Echocardiography Laboratory offers tests, known as echocardiograms, which create an ultrasound image of the heart. This procedure allows doctors to look inside the heart and analyze in detail its structure and function. Echocardiograms have become increasingly helpful in the treatment of numerous heart conditions, and can be performed on patients who are currently in the hospital or on out-patients as part of follow-up care and treatment.
Electrophysiology Service
Electrophysiologists at Holtz Children’s Hospital treat children with all forms of irregular heartbeats, which are called cardiac arrhythmias. Children with these conditions have many uncomfortable symptoms including:
palpitations
rapid or slow heart rates
dizziness
fainting
Holtz Children’s Hospital offers tests, evaluation and monitoring of cardiac arrhythmias in children utilizing state-of-the-art technology and procedures, including the implantation of pacemakers and defibrillators to regulate heart rates.
Magnet Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive imaging technique that has gained increasing importance in the diagnosis of congenital and acquired heart disease. Our pediatric cardiologists have deep experience with this technology, which is used in the identification of the specific heart problem and evaluation of how well the treatments are working.
Perfusion Services
Pediatric cardiac perfusionists are technical specialists who ensure maximum safety and ideal operating conditions when performing surgical procedures to repair heart defects.
In the operating room, they prepare and operate the heart-lung machine, cell saver and ventricular assistance devices. They also operate the Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenator (ECMO) machine in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit and in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Perfusionists play a critical role, alongside cardiac surgeons and anesthesiologists, in patient safety and treatment.
