Catheterization
Diagnostic catheterization is performed to assist in diagnosing complex heart conditions, and to help physicians and parents decide on further treatments.
A diagnostic catheterization is performed in a skilled environment by our team’s cardiologists to obtain details that are inaccessible by other non-invasive methods. As part of Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas, the Regional Heart Program has all the resources available to help your child be comfortable during this test.
With the opening of the new Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, a new heart cath lab, with two 1,100 square feet procedure rooms will provide more efficient and expanded services within the Children’s Regional Heart Program. The cath lab will also be the first in Central Texas to offer the Philips Integris Allura monoplane system that provides 3D coronary reconstruction.
Non-Surgical Therapy
Children with certain congenital heart conditions may benefit from procedures performed in the Dell Children’s cardiac catheterization lab. Our specially-trained pediatric cardiologists use special catheters, balloons, coils and other devices that are threaded into the heart to treat certain conditions.
In certain cases, additional procedures, or interventions, can be performed to fix an abnormality in the heart or circulation. Children’s Regional Heart Program offers the following interventional procedures, as well as new procedures developed every year:
- balloon atrial septostomy for treating complex cyanotic congenital heart disease.
- angioplasty and stent placement to dilate critically narrowed vessels
- coil occlusion to block the flow in specific blood vessels
- valvuloplasty to repair congenital valve defects
- trans-catheter device closure
- Amplatzer Septal Occluder
Cardiac Surgery
The cardiothoracic surgeons at the Dell Children’s Regional Heart Program use sophisticated technology to treat and repair the entire spectrum of congenital and acquired defects. These procedures may range from ligation of a patent ductus arteriosus to a complex cardiac reconstruction such as the Ross procedure or an arterial switch operation, and everything in between. The staged procedures used for palliating single ventricle lesions including the Norwood procedure, Hemi-Fontan or Bidirectional Glenn procedures, and Fontan procedures are offered as well.
All surgical procedures are performed under the care of specially trained pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists. All procedures utilizing cardiopulmonary bypass are performed with specially trained pediatric perfusionists as well.