Department of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery - Asklepios Childrens Hospital Sankt Augustin

About the Department of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery at Asklepios Childrens Hospital Sankt Augustin

The Department of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Asklepios Children's Hospital Sankt Augustin offers the full range of modern surgical interventions for the treatment of congenital and acquired heart defects, as well as pathologies of the respiratory system. The specialists of the medical facility admit newborns, young children, as well as adolescents under the age of 18. The department has a perfect infrastructure for optimal care of young patients. The operating rooms have state-of-the-art equipment, which allows the doctors to perform the most sparing surgical treatment. The department's team of surgeons is convinced that it is possible to achieve an excellent result in the treatment of heart defects in children only when providing comprehensive medical care in interdisciplinary cooperation with specialists in the field of prenatal diagnostics, cardiology, intensive care, genetics, etc. With the necessary expert knowledge, long experience and access to medical innovations, the department holds leading positions in the area of its specialization in the European medical arena. In addition, the specialists have unique professional skills in the treatment of rare and complex heart pathologies in children. The department is headed by Prof. Dr. med. Boulos Asfour.

The department successfully performs surgery with and without the use of a heart-lung machine. The main goal of the department is the timely repair of congenital heart defects to prevent damage to the brain and other organs due to oxygen deficiency or blood stasis. As a rule, with combined defects (for example, ventricular septal defect and aortic arch stenosis), all disorders are repaired during a single operation – doctors perform a simultaneous surgical intervention.

The department has vast experience in aortic valve reconstruction in children. Valve preservation surgery does not require long-term anticoagulant therapy with warfarin, marcumar, or their analogues. Thanks to the preservation of the patient's valve tissue, it can grow, which is especially important when treating children. Another priority of ​​the department's work is hybrid surgery. With certain heart defects, for example, in the case of muscular, namely, a deep-seated, ventricular septal defect, it will be difficult for the surgeon to detect and effectively close the defect between the numerous muscle bundles in the right ventricle. In this case, it is more appropriate to carry out a hybrid intervention, in which the defect is closed during an open echoscopy-guided surgery. This intervention is performed in cooperation with the specialists in pediatric cardiology.

The department's medical team is also competent in surgery for respiratory diseases. Particular attention is paid to the surgical treatment of lung, mediastinal and pleural tumors, thoracic aortic aneurysms and congenital thoracic deformities (pectus carinatum, pectus excavatum and combined chest wall deformities). The specialists prefer low traumatic operations, and therefore video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery is widely used in clinical practice. Such interventions are performed under endoscopic imaging guidance, with the use of special instruments that are inserted into the thorax through small skin incisions. At the final stage of the operation, absorbable sutures are applied on the incisions, which will not need to be removed in the future. After such interventions, the patient does not experience severe pain and recovers quickly, the risks of postoperative complications are almost zero.

The department's range of medical services includes:

• Surgery for cardiovascular diseases
  • Surgical treatment of hypoplastic left heart syndrome (Fontan procedure)
  • Surgical treatment of aortic valve insufficiency/stenosis
  • Surgical repair of the improper position of large vessels extending from the heart (transposition of the great vessels)
  • Surgical treatment of aortic isthmus stenosis
  • Surgical treatment of Ebstein's anomaly
  • Surgical treatment of ventricular septal defect
  • Surgical treatment of atrial septal defect
  • Surgical treatment of Tetralogy of Fallot
  • Surgical treatment of persistent truncus arteriosus
  • Surgical treatment of anomalous pulmonary venous drainage (total and partial)
  • Surgical treatment of pulmonary atresia
• Surgery for respiratory diseases
  • Surgical resection of lung, mediastinal and pleural tumors
  • Surgical treatment of thoracic aortic aneurysms
  • Surgical treatment of congenital chest wall deformities: pectus carinatum, pectus excavatum and combined chest wall deformities
• Other surgical options

The main areas of the department's specialization  include:

• Corrective surgery with and without a heart-lung machine
• Palliative surgery for single ventricle defects
• Minimally invasive surgery with optimal cosmetic results
• Valve preservation surgery (for example, for aortic valve stenosis)
• Hybrid interventions
• Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery
• Modern postoperative intensive care (including ECMO)
• Other areas of specialization