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Children's Interventional Cardiology

The most advanced, innovative tools and skills are used by the heart program at Children's of Mississippi to manipulate tiny catheters inside blood vessels to access and repair a young patient’s anatomically challenged or weakened heart muscle.

These non-surgical procedures can be performed with less discomfort and quicker recovery compared to open surgeries, often avoiding or delaying the need for an operation. The interventional (i.e. – fixing something) portion of the procedure is often performed at the time of a diagnostic cardiac catheterization, but may be deferred to a later date depending on the patient’s medical needs.

Our specialists are the first in the region to perform a transcatheter pulmonary heart valve replacement, a non-surgical alternative to open-heart surgery. A cardiologist delivers a heart replacement valve through a catheter in the cardiovascular system, requiring only a small incision in the groin.

Prior to the development of this minimally invasive procedure, patients were forced to travel out of state for care. Recovery time now is faster, usually requiring only a one-day hospital stay.

Pediatric catheter intervention procedures are performed in UMMC’s Heart Station catheter lab, where specially trained nurses and assistants aid in pediatric and congenital heart intervention.

The care team is led by an internationally renowned and board-certified cardiologist with subspecialty training in pediatric therapeutic catheter intervention. His subspecialty expertise provides patients with newer techniques and procedures available to few medical centers, and he is recognized as one of the few pediatric interventional procedure instructors in the country.

Services

Interventional cardiology services performed at Children's of Mississippi include, but are not limited to:

• Placement of heart valves without opening the chest (catheter-based repairs)
• Angioplasty to open narrowed arteries and veins
• Closure of atrial septal defect
• Closure of ventricular septal defect
• Patent ductus arteriosus repair
• Balloon valvuloplasty of pulmonary and aortic stenosis
• Coarctation/recoarctation of the aorta
• Balloon valvuloplasty of aortic and pulmonary valves
• Artery dilation and stent implantation

Catheter-based repairs

Children's of Mississippi heart specialists offer a variety of catheter-based repairs for young patients. State-of-the-art technology allows pediatric cardiologists to use flexible, hollow tubes (catheters) to repair a variety of heart defects, including:

• Atrial septal defect (ASD)
• Ventricular septal defect (VSD)
• Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA)
• Pulmonary stenosis
• Aortic stenosis
• Coarctation/recoarctation of the aorta
• Balloon dilation of narrowed valves
• Balloon dilation and stents of narrowed vessels