Pediatric Cardiac Surgery
Treatment of congenital heart defects is the important part of pediatric cardiac surgery. Congenital heart defects (CHF) develop in 1% of live births. It means, that every year approx.., 350-500 children with CHD are born in Georgia. About 30% of babies born with such a pathlogy are in a critical condition from the very first days of their lives. Around 70% of these patients require treatment for the malformation in the first year of their life.
The Jo Ann University Hospital is the nationwide pioneer and founder of the field. The Hospital was founded with the help and support of leading American and European specialists.
Its staff is specially trained to timely provide diagnosis and modern treatment to fetuses, newborns, infants, adolescents and adults with congenital heart defects. Our doctors are well versed in all the methods necessary for the diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart disease (fetal echocardiography, transesophageal echocardiography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance angiographic study).As a result most of our patients do not need invasive angiocardiography for the diagnosis. At the Jo Ann University Hospital, surgical procedures of all complexity and scale are successfully performed in full accordance with modern, constantly updated standards. The results are controlled both by the quality control of the Center and by the Quality Control Services of the American counterparts.
Surgery for congenital heart defects is a relatively young field. Periodically, certain surgical or invasive thechniques are refined or updated. The Jo Ann University Hospital keeps pace with the modern global advancements. The approaches are constantly updated and the experience of the world's leading centers working in the field is introduced. If necessary, highly qualified invasive cardiologists treat some congenital heart defects without radical surgery. For example, today it is already possible to close most open ductus arteriosus (ductal ductus), atrial septal defects and some ventricular septal defects with a minimally invasive method. In addition, our cardiologists treat heart valves and blood vessels narrowed for various reasons (methods used are balloon valvuloplasty and vascular ballooning). All mentioned procedures are carried out in the catheterization laboratory, using special catheters that are administered through the leg or arm vein, or the artery, under the control of modern methods of radiological imaging.
If a newborn or a teenager with a congenital heart defect needs urgent open surgery, the highly qualified specialists of the hospital's Congenital Heart Defects Surgery Department can provide a full range of surgical services in any age category including premature and/or low-weight newborns and adults 24-hour a day. For congenital heart defect surgery the hospital uses the latest approaches, surgical techniques, technologies and materials. Together with the high qualifications of our doctors, this creates an opportunity to provide the most effective medical service, that is focused on patient safety.
As a result the medical statistics of CHD pathologies obtained at the Jo Ann University Hospital – e.i. the rate of patient survival, number of successful operations and, in the long-term perspective, improvement of quality of their lives - is at the same level as at the leading, recognized European and American medical institutions.
