Congenital Heart Disease
Normal Fetal Heart
Ventricular Septal Defect: New, state-of-the-art radiant color flow reveals a small hose between the chambers of the heart (arrow)
This highly complex and varied group of conditions affecting the structure of the heart can range from mild to life-threatening. In the last five years, UR Medicine Maternal-Fetal Medicine has seen and evaluated almost 500 women whose babies have some form of congenital heart disease.
We know that when your baby has a heart condition it can be scary time getting ready for birth and planning the care they need after delivery. You can relax knowing that the physicians at the University of Rochester Medical Center and UR Medicine's Golisano Children’s Hospital are world-class subspecialists with expertise in diagnosing and treating rare congenital heart defects.
Children’s Heart Center at Golisano Children's Hospital
The Children’s Heart Center at Golisano Children's Hospital cares for infants and children with cardiac disease at every stage of life, providing the care you need close to home.
Most infants born with milder forms of cardiac disease may be able to be discharged home for follow-up with Pediatric Cardiology and possible surgical planning for later in childhood.
Each year, the Children’s Heart Center performs over 5000 pediatric echocardiograms. For children that need further evaluation, the team performs more than 300 diagnostic and interventional cardiac catheterizations and electrophysiology studies each year.
The Children's Heart Center offers the only pediatric catheterization laboratory in Western New York equipped to perform the most specialized interventional procedures on children and adults with congenital heart disease. Previously, families had to drive to Cleveland, OH, or Boston, MA, for this type of service. Now, they can receive the highest quality of care within a short drive of home.
Children’s Heart Surgery Team
If your child needs surgery or evaluation, the natural choice in Upstate NY is the Children’s Heart Center.
The Pediatric Cardiology Surgery team performs more than 300 open heart surgical cases annually. The group at Golisano Children's Hospital sees patients from Upstate NY and the surrounding regions, and are the only team in Upstate NY that offers complex pediatric cardiac repairs including single-ventricle palliation.
The Pediatric Cardiac Consortium of Upstate of NY
The Pediatric Cardiac Consortium of Upstate of NY actively reviews and discusses each cardiac child with complex heart disease in the Upstate region. Based on the NYS 2010-13 assessment of complexity of cases, UR Medicine's Golisano Children's Hospital cares for some of the highest risk infants and children in the state, with survival rates and outcomes that exceed expected rates for the complexity of cases. The team had the second lowest mortality rates for congenital cardiac surgery in the state in this report, and was the second highest volume center, second only to Columbia.
Pediatric Cardiac Care Center at Golisano Children's Hospital
Surgical care is only part of the care related the care of the infant with a cardiac disease. Infants will need care through pregnancy, in the NICU, and then in the Pediatric ICU after surgery.
For more complicated diagnoses that require intervention or surgery shortly after birth, the NICU team admits and cares for these infants until their transition to the Pediatric Cardiac Care Center for their peri-operative management.