Our paediatric cardiac surgery service cares for children with congenital (from birth) heart defects and children requiring other often less complex heart surgery.
Planning for surgery
If your child’s cardiologist feels surgery may be needed, we will discuss this at the weekly surgical meeting.
We will discuss your child’s medical history, including reviewing tests or studies that have been carried out.
Following this, the group will decide:
- A plan for treatment
- If the procedure is the best treatment
- Timing of that procedure
- Type of procedure.
Types of surgery
The repair of many heart defects requires the use of a cardiopulmonary bypass (heart-lung bypass machine), stopping and opening the heart to carry out the surgery. Such defects include:
- Atrial septal defects (ASD)
- Ventricular septal defects (VSD)
- Transposition of the Great Arteries
- Tetralogy of Fallot and other complex anomalies.
Most children’s heart procedures are open-heart procedures.
Our results
All hospitals that perform surgery and invasive catheter procedures on children with heart conditions are required to submit data every year for a UK-wide outcomes database.
You can find that information here.
