Miami-based Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Heart Institute is one of the first in the U.S. to successfully perform a Fontan procedure using a transcatheter-based approach on a child.
The two-year-old child was born with a double-outlet right ventricle, according to a Sept. 9 hospital news release. Rather than open-heart surgery, the team used the catheter-based approach to guide specialized equipment through a blood vessel to complete the patient’s Fontan circulation. The child is recovering well and has returned home
The Fontan procedure is traditionally the final planned stage in a series of operations for children born with a single-ventricle heart defect. It is designed to reroute the blood flow so that blood returning from the body goes to the lungs without being pumped there by a ventricle. The procedure has no incisions, a shorter hospital stay and faster recovery compared to traditional surgery.
The procedure was led by Shyam Sathanandam, MD, chief of cardiovascular medicine at Nicklaus Children’s and co-director of the Heart Institute, and David Kalfa, MD, chief of cardiovascular surgery.
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