Dr. Shyam Sathanandam, Dr. David Kalfa, and team
The Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Heart Institute has successfully performed one of the first Fontan procedures in the United States utilizing a transcatheter-based approach on a child, marking an important advancement in care for children born with complex congenital heart disease.
In this novel procedure, the team used a catheter-based approach, rather than open-heart surgery, to guide specialized equipment through a blood vessel to complete the child’s Fontan circulation. The child, a 2-year-old born with double-outlet right ventricle, is recovering well and is expected to go home in a few days.
For children who are candidates for the catheter-based approach, the procedure offers the advantage of no incisions, a shorter hospital stay and a faster recovery compared with traditional surgery.
The procedure was led by Dr. Shyam Sathanandam, chief of cardiovascular medicine at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, co-director of the Nicklaus Children’s Heart Institute and clinical professor at FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, in collaboration with Dr. David Kalfa, chief of cardiovascular surgery and professor and researcher at FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. Together, the interventional cardiology team and cardiovascular surgery team came together to carefully plan the procedure in the ongoing effort to offer less invasive approaches to care for children with congenital heart defects.
