Heart Conditions and Treatments

We care for children of all ages with simple to highly complex structural heart defects and heart disease, including those with serious conditions that are labeled untreatable by other medical providers and premature babies who need immediate heart surgery. We develop surgical techniques for very challenging heart conditions—for some, we are the only center in the world that offers them. In part, our heart surgery program at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health is successful because we perform so many heart operations; the literature is clear that outcomes in heart surgery relate directly to the volume of procedures performed.

When treating complex structural heart defects, pediatric heart surgery can be like plastic surgery of the heart. With highly sophisticated and intricate repair and reconstruction, we take apart a heart that isn’t constructed correctly and then reconstruct it so that its valves, chambers, and arteries are in the right positions and connected as they should be. Heart surgery is often the best solution for children with highly complex heart defects.

Specialized heart surgery programs and key partnerships at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health

Within our large cardiothoracic surgical team, we have surgeons who subspecialize in specific heart conditions. By focusing their careers on performing heart surgeries for certain pediatric heart conditions, they are able to provide the latest, most advanced pediatric heart care in highly effective ways. The following programs offer specialized pediatric heart surgeries:

Besides these established programs, our skilled heart surgeons work closely with fetal cardiologists at Stanford Children’s to plan and carry out neonatal cardiac surgery (including for very low-birth-weight or premature babies) and partner with the broader team within Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center and the Stanford Medicine Children’s Health network to remove heart tumors in children, place heart valves for congenital heart disease, and more.

Treatment highlights

At Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, we use advanced imaging, anesthesia, perfusion, and heart surgery methods to give children with heart disease the best possible outcome.

• We lead the nation in the use of electronic beam three-dimensional CT (computerized tomography) scanners, which provide highly accurate images of the heart and major vessels. These images give our heart surgeons a detailed view of your child’s condition and allow thorough planning of the procedure in advance.
• Our heart surgeons have worked closely with pediatric cardiac imaging specialists to develop 3-D imaging of complex heart conditions that can be displayed on large monitors just behind the operating table, so that surgeons can use a road map to explore the cardiac defect they are addressing in real time. The better that surgeons can visualize the nuances of a patient’s heart defect, the faster and more thoroughly they can access and correct it.
• Our state-of-the-art large operating rooms afford ample space for everything and everyone needed to seamlessly care for and provide your child with the best possible outcome.
• Our exceptional Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) provides advanced and highly tailored care for your child after their heart surgery, with experts specifically trained in critical care for pediatric heart patients.
• We are committed to patient-centered care and working closely with you as a family, which means including you in regular care meetings and honoring your opinion. Every step of the way, we will support your child and your family with various patient resources.
• If your child requires a complex heart surgery or interventional cardiac catheterization procedure, ask about our Heart Center Coordination Program, which can provide your family with a cardiac nurse navigator to guide you through your child’s care journey at Stanford Children’s. The program is currently supporting pediatric patients with certain complex heart needs. 

Our ultimate goal is to see your newborn, child, or teenager leave Packard Children’s after surgery for a complex heart condition and learn later on that your child has met life’s milestones and is living a healthy, full life just like everyone else.