A highly specialized pediatric heart procedure available at only a handful of centers worldwide is now being performed in Florida, expanding treatment options for children born with some of the most complex heart defects.<\/p>\n
Dr. David Kalfa, professor and researcher at FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine (FIU Medicine) and chief of cardiovascular surgery and co-director of the Nicklaus Children\u2019s Heart Institute, recently led a surgical team that performed Florida\u2019s first staged cardiac septation procedure on a 1-year-old patient.<\/p>\n
Congenital heart defects are the most common birth defects, affecting nearly 40,000 infants each year. This innovative procedure is designed for children born with a single functioning ventricle, a condition in which only one of the heart\u2019s two pumping chambers develops properly, making it difficult for the heart to efficiently pump blood through the body and lungs.<\/p>\n
Rather than relying on a traditional one-time reconstruction, the staged approach gradually rebuilds the heart over time, allowing it to develop two-ventricle circulation as the child grows.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe staged cardiac septation represents an important advancement in the treatment of children born with a single pumping chamber because it allows us to rebuild and adapt the heart in a more gradual and individualized way,\u201d said Kalfa. \u201cFor children born with this complex congenital heart disorder, this approach can reduce the strain of traditional single-stage surgeries while creating new opportunities for improved heart function, recovery and long-term quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The milestone reflects Kalfa\u2019s leadership in pediatric heart surgery and his expertise in treating some of the most challenging cardiac conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A highly specialized pediatric heart procedure available at only a handful of centers worldwide is now being performed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-341238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}