The CHOC Heart Institute brings hope to children with heart disease and their families. CHOC is the only regional hospital exclusively committed to the health and well-being of pediatric and adolescent patients. Rated as one of Child Magazine’s top Children’s Hospitals, we are dedicated to nurturing, advancing and protecting the health and well-being of all children. The CHOC Heart Institute provides state of the art diagnosis and treatment for an entire spectrum of cardiac conditions from the neonatal to the adolescent patient.

Specialized Expertise
The CHOC Heart Institute provides comprehensive cardiac care including complete cardio diagnostics, cardiac catheterization and cardiac surgical services. We are the only regional facility to perform neonatal and pediatric open heart surgery. We have assembled a multi-disciplinary team of pediatric cardiologists, cardiac intensivists, electrophysiologists, anesthesiologists, and cardiac surgeons who are specially trained in the management of infants and children with congenital heart defects.

We treat virtually all known forms of congenital and acquired heart disease. The most common surgical conditions we treat include:

• Atrial Septal Defect
• Atrioventricular Canal
• Coarctation of the Aorta (COA)
• Double Outlet Right Ventricle
• Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome
• Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA)
• Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Connection
• Transposition of the Great Arteries
• Tetralogy of Fallot
• Single Ventricle
• Ventricular Septal Defect

In order to accurately diagnose and treat each patient, we provide an array of comprehensive cardio diagnostic services including:

• Electrocardiogram (EKG), Holter Monitoring and Event Monitor Recording
• Exercise Treadmill Test
• Echocardiography:
  o Fetal echocardiography
  o Transthoracic
  o Transesophageal
• Cardiac Catheterization ( Diagnostic and Therapeutic)
• Pacemaker interrogation
• General Radiology:
  o Chest X-Ray
• CAT Scan
• Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
• Electrophysiology (EP) Study

Once all test and lab results are compiled, a multi-disciplinary team comprised of cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, intensivists, neonatologists, anesthesiologist and cardiac nurse practitioners meet to discuss your child’s case and to determine the best course of treatment.

If your child needs heart surgery, The CHOC Heart Institute offers the latest in cardiac surgical techniques to repair congenital heart defects from birth to adolescence. Although we can perform heart surgery at any age, early definitive repair is the preferred approach in many instances. We have performed open heart surgery in premature infants weighing as little as 1.4 kg. Our cardiac surgeons work closely with our multidisciplinary team of specialists to ensure an optimal outcome in each case. In addition, we offer fetal echocardiography to diagnose heart defects before birth. Radio frequency ablation (rf ablation) is offered as a non-surgical treatment option for certain arrhythmias.

Our dedicated pediatric cardiovascular intensive care unit (CVICU) is staffed by pediatric cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, pediatric intensivists, cardiac clinical nurse practitioners, pediatric ICU nurses, respiratory therapists, dieticians and case managers all with specialized cardiac training and experience to ensure optimal outcomes for each patient. Once the patient is ready to go home, our cardiac nurse practitioner will work with you and your family to provide education and coordinate discharge planning for your child.

Did You Know?
Our patients can also visit the Pacemaker Follow-up Clinic, as needed, on an ongoing basis?

Personalized Care
At the CHOC Heart Institute, we believe every patient is unique. Once an appointment is made through a referral from your family primary care physician or specialist, your child may undergo several diagnostic tests to help our specialists make or confirm a diagnosis. Once diagnosed, each patient is followed by a pediatric cardiac trained Nurse Practitioner. The Nurse Practitioner serves as an advocate for you and your child, attends all case conferences, facilitates patient appointments and ensures seamless care between inpatient and outpatient treatment. After your care team’s conference, your physician will meet with you to outline your child’s individual treatment plan, which will include type of treatment and length of therapy.

Our specialists work closely with your referring physician to ensure that there is coordination of care as well as close communication. At the CHOC Heart Institute, we believe that your referring physician is an important member of our treatment team and vital to your child’s long-term care.

At the CHOC Heart Institute, we recognize that when your child is ill and needs hospitalization, you and your entire family are affected. As a family centered care environment, we encourage patient family and friends to participate in the treatment of each patient. We invite parents to participate in daily multidisciplinary team rounds, patient case conference and sleep by the bed side of their child.

The CHOC Heart Institute also believes in allowing a child to be a child and creating a sense of normalcy through play, discovery and creativity. We offer the most comprehensive child-life and family support programs in the region and are committed to promoting the fullest developmental potential of each child.

• Parent support groups
• Early Developmental Assessment Program
• Rehabilitation services
• Complementary / Alternative Medicine program
• Social Services

Contact Us
Contacting the CHOC Heart Institute is easy. We work in close partnership with referring physicians to ensure that your access to the CHOC Heart Institute is timely and direct. We also provide second opinions for patients with newly diagnosed or on-going acquired/congenital heart defects. You will be asked to bring your medical records with you. We offer consultations for evaluation of newly diagnosed heart defects, management of current cardiac conditions, physician-to-physician consultations and second opinions.