Surgeons at Coral Terrace, Fla.-based Nicklaus Children’s Hospital’s Heart Institute successfully performed Florida’s first partial heart transplant on an 11-year-old patient.
The patient had two heart surgeries as a baby prior to coming to Nicklaus Children’s, according to an April 15 system news release. The procedure involves implanting a “living valve” to prevent the need for future open-heart surgeries because the valve grows with the child.
“Partial heart transplants are redefining what’s possible in pediatric heart surgery,” David Kalfa, MD, chief of cardiovascular surgery and co-director of the Nicklaus Children’s Heart Institute, said in the release. “By transplanting a living valve, we are not just repairing a defect. We are restoring function in a way that allows the heart to grow naturally.”
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