Children's Heart Treatments & Programs

Beyond the comprehensive evaluation of your/your child’s heart or vascular condition and getting an accurate diagnosis from the highly trained team of cardiovascular experts at Children’s Heart Center, you can take advantage of a wide range of pediatric heart and vascular treatments and programs at OU Health in Oklahoma City or Tulsa.

Pediatric Heart Treatments & Programs

Talk with your/your child’s doctor and cardiac specialists to help choose the innovative pediatric cardiology services at OU Health designed to meet your specific needs and evolve with you or your child over time as you live with a heart or vascular condition while enjoying a full life.

Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program

As an adult born with congenital heart disease, you can find expert follow-up care at Children’s Heart Center at The Children’s Hospital. You gain access to an extensive array of adult-focused inpatient and outpatient services to help you meet your medical, physical, emotional and social needs throughout your life.

You and your doctors collaborate with The Children's Hospital’s heart and vascular medicine experts to personalize your care and treatment. In addition, you benefit from our lifetime commitment to you, with guidance about how your individual heart condition may affect important adult milestones such as employment, physical activity, pregnancy and more.

Cardiovascular Imaging Services

With access to advanced diagnostic and interventional cardiovascular imaging and analysis at The Children’s Hospital’s Children’s Heart Center, you’re assured of the detailed, high-resolution images that contribute to accurate diagnosis and precision treatment for your/your child’s particular condition.

You’ll work with expert physicians and highly trained imaging specialists who use the most innovative imaging technologies designed to minimize and often eliminate any form of harmful radiation exposure.

Explore The Children's Hospital’s extensive imaging and radiology services used for
cardiovascular care, including:

• Computed tomography (CT)
• Echocardiography – 2D, 3D, fetal, transesophageal (TEE)
• Interventional X-ray – 3D, high-speed rotational angiography
• Intracardiac echocardiography (ICE)
• Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Learn more about diagnostic tests and visits at the Children’s Heart Center.

Fetal Heart Program

Through a focused, coordinated approach and plan for early detection and treatment of congenital heart abnormalities, you and your newborn can enjoy an active and productive life well into adulthood with the assistance of The Children's Hospital’s Fetal Heart Program, Oklahoma’s most comprehensive, multidisciplinary service for fetal cardiac care.

When you work with the fetal and pediatric experts at The Children's Hospital, you receive family-centered education and counseling with recommendations and information about treatment options to carry you or your child through life.

As part of The Children's Hospital’s Fetal Heart Program, you benefit from the continuous support of an expert team that includes maternal-fetal medicine and neonatal specialists, pediatric cardiology physicians and specialized cardiac surgeons and nurses dedicated to the well-being of both mom and baby before, during and after birth.

Your care team also may involve fetal cardiologists, cardiac intensivists, cardiac anesthesiologists or pediatric electrophysiologists, as well as specialists from multiple healthcare disciplines such as general surgery, genetics, neurology, neuroradiology, neurosurgery, orthopedics, ear-nose-throat care, plastic/reconstructive surgery, radiology, urology and patient services.

With this multidisciplinary approach, you’re assured of receiving a fully coordinated care plan and ongoing communication about what you can expect related to surgery, hospitalization and long-term outcomes following baby’s delivery.

Heart Rhythm Management Program

At The Children’s Hospital, you’ll find Oklahoma’s only comprehensive program for children living with abnormal heart rhythms. Board certified electrophysiologists and a multidisciplinary team of nurses and other specialists deliver comprehensive evaluation, care and treatment of abnormal heart rhythms, including the peace of mind provided by 24/7 remote monitoring via phone or web to families and children with pacemakers or defibrillators.

Interventional Cardiology Program

For the skill and experience to diagnose and often correct complex congenital cardiac abnormalities in people of all ages, from premature infants to adults, choose The Children’s Heart Center at The Children’s Hospital, the first and most comprehensive program of its kind in Oklahoma.

You’ll work with a team of extensively trained experts, including board-certified interventional cardiologists, highly specialized anesthesiologists, nurses and other healthcare professionals, who collaborate with you to develop an individualized treatment plan for your or your child’s specific situation.

You also benefit from their experience in performing and supporting hundreds of highly technical invasive and interventional procedures each year, including a hybrid approach combining transcatheter intervention with a surgical procedure that helps reduce the need for open-heart surgeries. Through our participation in groundbreaking research and device studies such as valve replacement implantation options for qualified patients, you gain more options for enhancing your quality of life.

Cardiovascular Perfusion Services

When you or your child need a surgical or medical procedure that requires support or temporary replacement for circulatory and/or respiratory (heart/lung) function, you want the expert cardiovascular perfusion services you’ll find at OU Health, one of Oklahoma’s most highly specialized and progressive cardiovascular teams with the extensive experience of performing more than 350 bypass procedures each year.

You’ll work with fellowship-trained and board-certified perfusionists skilled in selecting, setting up and operating advanced cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) equipment (heart-lung machine), extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and other technologies needed during surgical and medical procedures. And you benefit from specialized care management that creates an environment of safety, minimizes complications and translates to superior outcomes.

You also benefit from our participation in both basic science and clinical research projects, including mononuclear cell therapy for hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) and others, that lead to innovative procedures and practices for your care and treatment.

Pediatric Cardiac & Cardiothoracic Surgery & Critical Care

Rely on The Children’s Hospital’s pediatric cardiothoracic surgery services, Oklahoma’s first and only comprehensive pediatric cardiac surgery program, designed to help you or your child with procedures ranging from correction of relatively minor heart problems to highly complex repairs involving multiple conditions, as well as mononuclear cell therapy for hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS).

The Children’s Heart Center team performs nearly 450 common and highly complex congenital cardiac surgeries each year using hybrid, minimally invasive and robotic-assisted techniques for the most up-to-date treatments available, including:

• Congenital cardiac surgery, adult congenital cardiac surgery, congenital coronary anomaly repair
• Neonatal and infant cardiac surgery
• Fontan (single ventricle) cardiac surgery

With follow-up critical care at Oklahoma’s only pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (CVICU) and nationally verified Level I trauma team that incorporates pediatric cardiac nursing care from specially trained staff nurses, nurse educators, clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners, you know you’re in good hands when you choose The Children’s Hospital for pediatric cardiac surgery and critical care.

Thanks to support from generous benefactors, parents of all children in the single ventricle surgery process receive a digital scale and an oxygen saturation monitor.

Learn more about pediatric cardiac and vascular surgery and critical care at The Children’s Hospital’s Children’s Heart Center.

Heart Patient & Family Support / Hearts at Home

Along with the top-quality pediatric cardiac care and treatment you expect at The Children’s Hospital, you also gain access to a wide range of services to support cardiac kids and families designed to help you and your child remain as engaged and optimistic as possible. Options include:

• Case management and social services
• Child life services
• Nurse navigation
• School programs
• Language translation services
• Financial aid services
• Spiritual support
• Gift shop
• Onsite dining

Hearts at Home, a specialized program offered only through the Children’s Heart Center, helps parents deliver successful follow-up care between the first and second surgeries for single ventricle and other complex congenital cardiac anomalies.

Learn more about Hearts at Home and the many heart patient and family support services you’ll find at Children’s Heart Center.

Your Child’s Pediatric Heart & Vascular Care Team

During the time you and your child spend at Children’s Heart Center, you’ll work with a variety of talented, compassionate and highly trained experts – doctors, nurses and staff who provide specialized pediatric services to diagnose and treat your child’s specific condition.

You benefit from collaborating with an experienced pediatric cardiovascular team that directly involves you and your family in treatment decisions while also paying close attention to your family’s nonmedical needs.

Your child’s heart and vascular care team may include pediatric cardiologists, pediatric cardiothoracic surgeons, pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists, pediatric critical care specialists and pediatric cardiac nurses, as well as child life specialists, social workers, therapists and healthcare professionals from many disciplines.