Cardiac Surgery

The pediatric cardiac center at Miller Children’s, partners with the MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute (MHVI) at Long Beach Memorial, to offer the latest in cardiac surgical techniques, in surgical suites used just for heart surgeries. Miller Children’s board-certified pediatric cardiologists team up with MHVI’s board-certified cardiothoracic surgeons, to offer leading cardiac surgical care, including minimally invasive robot-assisted surgical procedures and open-heart surgery. Miller Children’s provides outstanding post-operative care in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and extensive follow-up care plans are handled in the Pediatric Cardiology Outpatient Specialty Centers to ensure that each patient’s individualized needs are met.

da Vinci® S. Surgical System - Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgery

The da Vinci® S. Surgical System is a robotic device used to help the cardiothoracic surgeon to have a greater range in motion while operating. The robot-assisted procedure allows the surgeon to essentially have an “extra set of hands” and also gives the surgeon a magnified view of the heart that is projected onto a screen in the surgical room.

Open-heart surgery

Open-heart is used to repair cardiac defects and complex anomalies, such as tetralogy of Fallot. Open-heart surgery is usually a heart operation performed that requires a patient to be on the heart-lung bypass machine, which takes over the function of the heart and lungs while the child’s heart is being repaired. A solution called, cardioplegia, stops the heart, so that the cardiothoracic surgeon can repair it in a still and bloodless environment. Sometimes, the heart can be operated upon while still beating, with the patient being supported on ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation), a heart-lung bypass machine. Most corrective procedures are open-heart procedures.