Hybrid Procedures

In a hybrid procedure, skills from both pediatric cardiac surgeons and pediatric interventional cardiologists (heart catheterization expert) are used to treat the child during one procedure.  Through physician teamwork  the child enjoys the latest techniques of both specialities to reduce both the impact of cardiac procedures and their length of stay in the hospital.  An interventional cardiologist usually places special devices in children to close holes in the heart, or to keep certain vessels open, or even to close other vessels.  Hybrid procedures can utilize the skills of the surgeon, to allow the implantation of these devices in small hearts or small patients that previously required open heart surgery. 

With this minimally invasive surgery, advantages include removing the need for arresting the circulation, the heart, or even the use of cardiopulmonary bypass (heart lung machine)  Although the procedures are not new themselves, the fact that they are combined is new and allows them to be available to a wider patient population.

This procedure is available to even the tiniest patients - those who may benefit the most from this innovation.  In some cases, hybrid surgery is the preferred method for treating newborns.

How might hybrid procedures help your child?  A hybrid approach allows babies once considered too small for device closure of a hole (avoiding open heart surgery) to still have this minimally invasive approach through a small incision.  For a baby with hypoplastic left heart syndrome whose heart is mixing blue and red blood, hybrid procedures allows the medical team to do the initial surgery to correct the pumping action of the right ventricle without using the heart-lung bypass machine.