Why Choose Us
Therapeutic Excellence
We provide all of the therapies that your child may need — from evaluating heart function and anatomy before birth to pediatric heart transplant and extended heart/lung support via extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a mechanical way to provide heart and lung support). In addition, our surgeons are renowned for the implantation of pacemakers and defibrillators in infants and children. We are also widely recognized for our expertise in newborn heart surgery; many of the procedures we perform are in low-birthweight newborns and infants under the age of one month.
State-of-the-Art Pediatric Interventional Catheterization
The Congenital Heart Center has the only pediatric catheterization laboratories in the metropolitan New York area dedicated to pediatric pulmonary hypertension and arrhythmia studies, as well as diagnostic and therapeutic interventions such as radiofrequency ablation for cardiac arrhythmias and balloon valvuloplasty of the aortic and pulmonary valves. Many of the pediatric interventional procedures that have become standard of care worldwide have been developed by interventional cardiologists at NewYork-Presbyterian. A great number of congenital heart defects can now be treated in the catheterization lab, requiring only a single day of hospitalization and eliminating the need for open heart surgery.
The Forefront of Innovation for the Treatment of Congenital Heart Disease
NewYork-Presbyterian – in collaboration with our distinguished medical schools, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Weill Cornell Medicine – builds on the strengths of its many clinical and scientific accomplishments to provide advanced care for patients with congenital heart disease:
- Leaders in the care of babies born with a single ventricle including the creation of a patient-specific approach to determine the first of three reconstructive surgeries (Norwood, Hybrid Stage I, or primary transplant) and transitional care from infancy to childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood
- Expanding the use of 3D pre-procedure planning models to guide surgery and interventional procedures in children born with complex heart lesions, including ventricular assist device placement planning
- Expertise performing the hybrid approach for hypoplastic left heart syndrome, and one of a few centers in the U.S. to establish a formal pediatric hybrid program
- Leaders in treating low-birthweight infants that require early surgical or transcatheter interventions including those with early complicated conditions involving either a ventricular septal defect or aortic arch anomalies
- Developing and refining pediatric interventional procedures as treatment for an increasing number of congenital heart conditions
- Developing a fetal cardiac intervention program, including fetal aortic and pulmonary balloon valvuloplasty as well as stenting of the interatrial septum for a subset of hypoplastic left heart fetuses with intact atrial septum
- Expertise in managing highly sensitized pediatric heart transplant patients
- One of the first centers in the U.S. to implant the Jarvik 2015 VAD into a toddler as part of the PumpKIN clinical trial
- Leading pediatric pulmonary hypertension center, noted Center of Excellence for pediatric PH.
First in Breakthrough Therapies:
- First center in New York State to implant a transcatheter pulmonary valve in a native right ventricular outflow tract using the Alterra Adaptive Prestent
- First center in region to perform percutaneous patent ductus arteriosus closure in low birthweight premature infants
- Established the first cardiac ICU in the nation exclusively dedicated to the care of newborn infants with congenital heart disease
- Implanting a Berlin heart as a bridge to transplant in the youngest patient ever to receive one – an infant only 2 days old
Recognized for High Standards of Care
- Tri-state area’s largest referral center for babies born with congenital heart disease
- Listed as a high-volume center by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons
- Reports quality outcomes to Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the IMPACT Registry
- Only ECMO program in the tri-state area designated a Platinum Center of Excellence by the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization
- Designated as a Regional Perinatal Center by the State of New York, the highest hospital classification level
- Designated a CCF-Accredited Center of Care by the Children’s Cardiomyopathy Foundation
- Accredited by the Pulmonary Hypertension Association as an Accredited Pediatric Center of Comprehensive Care
- Recognized as an official Pediatric Marfan Center by the Marfan Foundation
- Highest volume Pediatric Heart Transplant center