Department of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery and Treatment of Congenital Heart Defects - Heart and Diabetes Center NRW Bad Oeynhausen

About the Department of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery and Treatment of Congenital Heart Defects at Heart and Diabetes Center NRW Bad Oeynhausen

The Department of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery and Treatment of Congenital Heart Defects at the Heart and Diabetes Center NRW Bad Oeynhausen offers the full range of modern examinations of the cardiovascular system and effective surgical treatment for heart pathologies in newborns, infants, adolescents, and adults with congenital heart disease. The department regularly demonstrates high treatment success rates, thanks to which it has gained a reliable reputation in Germany and in the European medical arena.

The department is headed by Prof. Dr. med. Eugen Sandica, who has excellent qualifications in treating especially complex forms of heart failure. For example, one of his most outstanding achievements was the operation on a premature girl weighing only 660 grams, a very complex open-heart surgery. The heart of a child was the size of a hazelnut.

The department annually performs more than 500 surgical interventions on the heart, of which about 360 are performed using a heart-lung machine. In addition, the medical facility is one of the few in Europe that specializes in heart transplants for newborns, young children, and adolescents. About 200 such operations are performed here annually. Pediatric cardiac surgeons cooperate closely with the specialists in pediatric cardiology, which allows them to guarantee comprehensive and the most effective treatment for young patients.

The department's team of pediatric cardiac surgeons performs many interventions on newborns. The specialists successfully perform operations for congenital heart defects, including hypoplastic left heart syndrome, total anomalous pulmonary venous return, critical aortic stenosis, univentricular heart, patent ductus arteriosus, and others. Today, for the repair of congenital heart defects, low-traumatic catheter-based interventional procedures are widely used, and therefore, before deciding on an operation, cardiac surgeons, in cooperation with cardiologists, accurately examine the child to select the optimal treatment option.

One of the most common congenital heart defects in children is transposition of the great arteries (TGA). A child with this disease has an incorrect anatomical position of the aorta and pulmonary artery: the aorta does not depart from the left ventricle, as in a healthy heart, but from the right one, while the pulmonary artery is connected to the left ventricle. Transposition of the great arteries is dangerous because venous blood with a low oxygen content from the systemic circulation does not enter the lungs, returning to the systemic circulation, and oxygen-rich blood from the lungs returns to the lungs through the pulmonary artery, which prevents their mixing. This congenital heart disease also causes cyanosis, which is skin blueness with insufficient blood oxygenation. The lack of timely surgical treatment threatens the child with a fatal outcome. During the operation, a surgeon dissects tissues in the chest and reaches the heart, after which he approaches the main blood vessels and the heart. The specialist dissects both blood vessels approximately in the middle of their length, after which he restores the normal anatomical position of the aorta and pulmonary artery. After a surgical intervention, a young patient must be regularly monitored by a doctor and undergo follow-up examinations.

The department's cardiac surgeons often perform surgery for hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). This defect is characterized by underdevelopment of the left ventricle, combined with aortic valve stenosis and mitral valve atresia. Since hypoplastic left heart syndrome is one of the most complex heart pathologies, the treatment is also quite complicated and is carried out in three stages. At the first stage, the department's pediatric cardiac surgeons perform the Norwood procedure. The next intervention is performed in 4-6 months. The essence of the operation is to create a connection between the superior vena cava and the pulmonary artery. The final stage of treatment is an operation, the purpose of which is to connect the inferior vena cava with the pulmonary artery, which allows the doctors to completely separate the systemic circulation from the small one. The third intervention is performed at the age of 3-4 years, when the child's body weight reaches about 15 kg. After the completion of treatment, the child will need to undergo regular heart check-ups throughout their lives.

The department is certified as the Adult Congenital Heart Disease Center by the German Cardiac Society (DGK). The department's specialists admit patients over the age of 18 who underwent treatment for heart disease in childhood, but they require constant check-ups and monitoring of their health.

The department's surgical options include:

• Surgical treatment of congenital heart defects in newborns
  • Surgery for transposition of the great arteries
  • Surgery for hypoplastic left heart syndrome
  • Surgery for total anomalous pulmonary venous return
  • Surgery for an aortopulmonary window
  • Surgery for an interrupted aortic arch with or without a ventricular septal defect
  • Surgery for critical aortic valve stenosis (if catheter-based treatment is not possible)
  • Surgery for common arterial trunk
  • Surgery for pulmonary atresia/critical pulmonary valve stenosis with an intact ventricular septum
  • Surgery for tricuspid atresia
  • Surgery for univentricular heart
  • Surgery for anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery
  • Surgery for severe forms of Ebstein's anomaly
  • Surgery for critical narrowing of the aortic isthmus (coarctation)
  • Surgery for patent ductus arteriosus in premature babies
  • Open-heart surgery in very small premature babies
• Surgical treatment of congenital heart defects in infants, young children, and adolescents
  • Surgery for ventricular septal defects
  • Surgery for atrioventricular canal defects
  • Surgery for cor triatriatum
  • Surgery for anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery
  • Surgery for the formation of a vascular ring/loop
  • Surgery for the aorto-left ventricular tunnel
  • Surgery for tetralogy of Fallot
  • Surgery for duplication of the right ventricular outflow tract
  • Surgery for bidirectional cavopulmonary anastomosis in preparation for the Fontan procedure
  • Unifocalization of pulmonary blood flow in pulmonary atresia with a ventricular septal defect and formation of large aortopulmonary collateral arteries
  • Heart transplant surgery
  • Implantation of an artificial heart and mechanical circulatory systems
  • Surgery for heart valve defects
  • Hybrid heart surgery
  • Right ventricular outflow tract reconstruction
  • Pacemaker and defibrillator implantation
• Surgical treatment of congenital heart defects in adults
  • Atrial septal defect closure
  • Ventricular septal defect closure
  • Repair of the Tetralogy of Fallot and treatment of the consequences of the defect
  • Surgery for aortic stenosis
  • Aortic valve replacement with or without aortic annulus enlargement
  • Replacement of biological prosthetic heart valves
  • Hybrid interventions for right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) reconstruction after repair of tetralogy of Fallot in childhood
  • Surgery after repair of the transposition of the great vessels in childhood
  • Surgery after palliative treatment of tetralogy of Fallot in childhood
  • Heart transplant surgery
• Other surgical services