Pediatric Cardiology Surgical Services at the Children's Heart Center
The surgical team in the Children’s Heart Center at Phoenix Children’s Hospital has expertise in all aspects of surgical care for children and young adults with congenital heart and lung defects. The team manages a full range of surgical services from infants to adulthood including surgery involving single ventricle or other complex anomalies that require early, complicated reconstructive surgery. The Center has continued to demonstrate excellent results in terms of mortality and complication rates through the collaborative efforts of a multidisciplinary team.
Our surgeons also have the depth and breadth of experience that enables state-of-the-art approaches to surgery, providing patients with a safe and efficient pathway to recovery and rehabilitation.
Pediatric cardiology services
An extensive array of corrective and palliative surgeries are available at the Children's Heart Center. Operations are routinely performed at Phoenix Children's that are available at only a limited number of centers in North America, with results that rank among the very best.
Pediatric heart operations include:
- Closure of atrial and ventricular septal defects
- Complex single ventricle palliation
- Complex valve repair
- Coarctation repair
- Double switch for corrected transposition
- Ebstein's anomaly repair
- Fontan procedure
- Glenn procedure
- Heart transplant
- Konno operation
- Ligation of patent ductus arteriosus
- Repair of arteriovenous canal defect
- Repair of double outlet left ventricle
- Repair of multiple aortopulmonary collaterals
- Repair of sub-aortic membrane
- Repair of Tetralogy of Fallot
- Ross procedure
- Septal myectomy for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
- Valve-sparing root replacement for Marfan syndrome
Neonatal cardiology surgical services
Surgeons at the Children's Heart Center have one of the region's largest and most successful programs for neonatal heart surgery, with experience in procedures including the Norwood procedure for hypoplastic left heart syndrome and the arterial switch procedure for transposition of the great arteries.
The team uses the most advanced techniques such as selective perfusion to minimize the potential risks associated with neonatal surgery and to optimize outcomes. After these complex operations, patients are followed in the region's only single ventricle surveillance program, which continuously monitors patients to ensure continued growth and development.
Results exceed national benchmarks, and patients benefit from a system that provides comprehensive prenatal, peri-operative, and long-term care.
Neonatal surgical procedures include:
- Norwood procedure and Sano modification
- Hybrid procedure for hypoplastic left heart syndrome
- Arterial switch procedure for transposition of great arteries
- Damus-Kaye-Stansel procedure
- Heart transplant
- Ligation of patent ductus arteriosus
- Modified Blalock-Taussig shunt
- Pulmonary valve repair
- Repair of aortic coarctation
- Repair of atrial septal defect
- Repair of interrupted aortic arch
- Repair of Tetralogy of Fallot
- Repair of total anomalous pulmonary venous return
- Repair of ventricular septal defect
- Ross procedure
- Starnes procedure for severe Ebstein's anomaly
- Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)
Cardiothoracic surgical services
Cardiothoracic procedures involve the heart and lungs. Open and closed cardiothorasic procedures are performed for congenital defects, and focus on correcting defects early on in life whenever possible.
Neonatal and infant primary repairs:
- Transposition of the great arteries
- Tetralogy of Fallot AV canal correction
- Truncus arteriosis
- Interrupted arch/ventricular septal defect
- Anomalous pulmonary veins
- Hypoplastic left heart repair
Other complex single ventricle anomalies:
- Early conversion to cavopulmonary connection (Glenn shunt)
- Fontan and other single palliative procedures
- Ross procedure (cumulative experience of over 150 patients)
- Repair of congenital heart defects in adults (program in collaboration with Mayo Clinic Arizona)
- Respiratory and cardiac ECMO and ventricular assist device
Noteable accomplishments of cardiothoracic surgeries at Phoenix Children's:
More than 375 pediatric heart surgeries, including 270 open-heart surgeries, took place at Phoenix Children's Hospital in 2008. And fifteen percent of those surgeries were in babies less than four weeks of age.
Physician and Clinical Team
John Nigro, MD, Surgical Staff Division and Section Chief
Jeffrey Pearl, MD
Patricia A. Smith, CPNP
Contact
Cardiology / Cardiothoracic Surgery (602) 933-3366
Fax: 602-933-4166
