Pediatric Cardiac Surgery - ASD/VSD/AV Repair, MV Repair/Pediatric TOF

Pediatric Cardiac Surgery is heart surgery performed on a young person, which is usually defined as someone younger than 16 or 18 years of age. Atrial Septal Defect is a birth defect that causes a hole to develop between the two upper chambers of the heart. If not diagnosed until adulthood, it is possible for damage done to the whole heart and the lungs shorten lifespans. By 30 most adults will be symptoms of this disorder.

A Ventricular Septal Defect is a birth defect that causes a hole to be formed between the walls of the two lower chambers of the heart. If not diagnosed it can also affect the whole heart and the lungs which can shorten one’s lifespan. By 30 most people experience symptoms of the disorder.

MV Repair has recently become much more minimally invasive thanks to a new robot technology that has allowed surgeons to keep incision sizes to 2-3 inches in length, and in some more rare cases small as one inch. This provides a quicker recovery time and a lot less pain for the patient who has to undergo the procedure.

Pediatric TOF stands for a Tetralogy of Fallot, which is a congenital heart condition that presents an issue with the heart’s structure. This condition is present from birth. About 5 in every 10,000 babies born suffer from this condition. It includes 4 possible disorders including 1) a large ventricular septal defect, 2) pulmonary stenosis, 3) right ventricular hypertrophy, and 4) an overriding aorta. Most children born with these defects can live to adulthood, however, they need lifelong preventative care to help keep them healthy as much as possible moving into the future.