Pulmonary Hypertension
Children from all over the country come to our institution for our novel modified unidirectional-valved shunt surgery as a palliative bridge.
NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital is home to the only Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension Center that is accredited by the Pulmonary Hypertension Association in the tri-state region, and one of only 8 in the country. Under the direction of Dr. Erika Berman-Rosenzweig, experts in our Pulmonary Hypertension Comprehensive Care Center team work hand in hand with neonatal and pediatric cardiac intensivists and cardiac surgeons to ensure the best outcomes for children.
Additionally, our team partners with specialists in adult congenital heart disease, adult critical care, pulmonology and cardiothoracic surgery to treat adults with pulmonary hypertension, regardless of the presence of congenital heart disease. In situations when the patient is inoperable, the pulmonary hypertension team offers the most advanced medical and interventional therapies for pulmonary hypertension.
The team has recently developed a novel innovative surgical approach to the classic Potts shunt, by creating a modified unidirectional-valved shunt between the main pulmonary artery and descending aorta to alleviate strain on the right side of the heart due to severe pulmonary hypertension. Our team has developed this unique program to enable children from all over the country to come to our institution for this novel surgery as a palliative bridge. (Rosenzweig EB, Ankola A, Krishnan U, Middlesworth W, Bacha E, Bacchetta M. A novel unidirectional-valved shunt approach for end-stage pulmonary arterial hypertension: early experience in adolescents and adults. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2019 Nov 14;S0022-5223(19)32771-0.)
Adult Congenital Heart Disease
NewYork-Presbyterian performed 440 adult congenital heart disease surgeries in 2016 to 2019.
NewYork-Presbyterian’s Congenital Heart Center, which is led by Drs. Emile Bacha and Ralf Holzer provides the full range of therapies a newborn, young child, or adolescent with CHD may require. Our integrated care team— including pediatric surgical, medical, anesthesiology, perfusionist, critical care, and cardiovascular support specialists—seamlessly transitions patients with complex heart conditions from prenatal care through adolescence and early adulthood.
Adult congenital heart patients require highly specialized surgical care. This can range from simple valve repair to the Ross procedure which is employed liberally and with great success to single ventricle mechanical support (VAD), and heart and heart-liver transplantation (in the case of end-stage Fontan patients with liver cirrhosis). For end-stage ACHD patients in particular, we work collaboratively with our adult heart failure surgery colleagues as well as the adult cardiac heart failure team to achieve the best possible outcomes for these complex patients.
From 2016 to 2019, we performed 2,907 pediatric and adult congenital heart surgeries and in 2019, our interventional cardiologists performed 5,246 pediatric and adult catheter procedures. This volume and experience support the high rates of survival and outstanding outcomes compared to national benchmarks.
Source: Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) National Database 2016-2019.