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Cardiology

Pediatric Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory

Studies are performed in the Hospital's Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory to evaluate patients with congenital and acquired cardiovascular disorders, pulmonary hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, as well as cardiac and lung transplantation patients pre- and postoperatively.

Our Division offers particular expertise in pediatric interventional cardiology, a unique specialty that involves the non-surgical treatment of congenital and acquired cardiovascular disorders. Our interventional cardiologists are specifically trained in pediatric procedures that require special attention to smaller anatomy, making access to the vascular system more challenging then those performed in an adult. Many of the pediatric interventional procedures that have become the standard of care worldwide have been developed by interventional cardiologists at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital.

These procedures often only require one day of hospitalization and use catheter techniques that can prevent the need for open heart surgical repair. The Hospital's Pediatric Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory performs more than 1,200 cardiac catheterization procedures a year making it one of the largest cath labs in the tristate area.

They include:

• balloon valvuloplasty of the aortic and pulmonary valves
• balloon valvuloplasty for distal pulmonary artery narrowing (stenosis)
• angioplasty, including dilation and stent implantation, to open narrowed arteries and veins
• balloon atrial septostomy to improve mixing of oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor blood to ensure that the body's oxygen saturation remains in a safe range
• atrial septoplasty or blade septotomy to treat pulmonary hypertension
• pulmonary artery dilation and stent implantation
• coil and Amplatzer device closure of open ductus arteriosus;atrial septal defect;Fontan fenestration; and patent foramen ovale -- a defect in the wall between the two upper chambers of the heart
• closure of ventricular septal defect
• percutaneous pulmonary valve replacement -- a new approach for the management of pulmonary regurgitation and conduit obstructions