The division of pediatric cardiac anesthesiology / anesthesiology for patients with congenital heart disease provides anesthesia for patients of all age groups including premature babies and neonates as well as adults in two operating rooms. The Department of Congenital Heart Surgery - Pediatric Heart Surgery performs more than 600 cardiac operations per annum across the entire spectrum of pediatric cardiovascular surgery, including ventricular assist device implantations and cardiac transplantations. Additionally, we support sedation and anesthesia for cardiac catheterization procedures, and electrophysiology interventions. In 2020, the Department of Cardiac Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine cared for over 600 patients with congenital heart defects. Of these, more than 470 patients were younger than five years old, of which 67% were neonates.

Due to the significant and sustained advances in corrective procedures for congenital heart defects, the majority of our patients today reach adulthood. Some will have their index procedure as adults, others require revision operations and adaptive procedures in adulthood, hence the care for adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) or grown-ups with congenital heart disease (GUCH) has become a growing and rapidly evolving field of our specialty.

We have expertise and experience in anesthesia care for both surgical and percutaneous correction of these defects. Our department provides instrumentation of arterial and venous lines, airway management, stand-by, conscious sedation and all common forms of general anesthesia in this complex cohort.

A clinical and research focus of the department is perioperative cerebral perfusion monitoring using near-infrared spectroscopy and EEG. Intraoperative echocardiography is provided in collaboration with colleagues from the Department of Congenital Heart Disease - Pediatric Cardiology. Special ultra-miniaturized transesophageal probes are available for even our smallest neonatal patients.

Blood conservation techniques in pediatric cardiac surgery have been pioneered at the German Heart Center Berlin such that we do not have to transfuse newborns and infants intraoperatively in the majority of cases and can mostly perform extracorporeal circulation without so-called “blood priming”. This is achieved through an extreme miniaturization of the extracorporeal circuits and specialized intraoperative monitoring as well as optimization of hemostasis.

In parallel with adult services we employ a fast-track recovery concept aiming for extubation prior to ICU transfer. This supports and enhances the postoperative course of many corrective procedures and has become a standard of care for procedures such as the bidirectional Glenn anastomosis and Fontan operations. Following a rigorous protocol that utilizes contemporary and novel sedation and pain concepts in both neonates and children together with the application of an adapted surgical approach we can achieve early extubation even after more advanced procedures.