Atrial septal defect (ASD, PFO)

Atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD)

Ventricular septal defect (VSD)

Persistent ductus arteriosus (PDA)

Aortopulmonary window

Truncus arteriosus communis (TAC)

[Translate to English:] Aortic valve stenosis – aortic valve insufficiency

Subvalvular aortic stenosis

Supravalvular aortic stenosis

Aortic isthmus stenosis (ISTA, coarctation of the aortic isthmus)

Double aortic arch – rings, slings

Interrupted aortic arch

Anomalous pulmonary venous connection, total (TAPVC) and partial (PAPVC)

Mitral valve stenosis / insufficiency

[Translate to English:] Tetralogy of Fallot

Pulmonary valve stenosis

Pulmonary atresia with VSD +/- major aorto-pulmonary collaterals (MAPCA)

Pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum

Ebstein anomaly

Absent pulmonary valve syndrome (APVS, APVS, Miller-White, Miller-Lev-Paul)

Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) – Norwood operation

Modified Blalock-Taussig shunt (BT shunt)

Pulmonary artery banding (PAB)

Glenn operation – upper bidirectional cavopulmonary anastomosis

Fontan operation – univentricular heart

Thanks to special heart-lung machines and many years of experience in surgical management we can offer even complex heart operations in newborn children without transfusing allogeneic blood – the only heart center worldwide to do so routinely. With operations in which blood transfusion is unavoidable, we seek to reduce the amount of blood to a minimum.

We operate for complex heart defects, such as transposition of the great arteries or hypoplastic left heart syndrome with associated malformations, with a high degree of safety. Operations include the Norwood operation, Yasui, arterial switch operation, Senning-Rastelli, Nikaidoh and the truncal turnover operation.

Our center specializes in the treatment of hypoplastic left heart syndrome. In this severe congenital defect only one of the two ventricles is developed. Thanks to many years of experience and intensive research we can, nevertheless, frequently make a high quality of life possible for our patients. We are proud that many of our patients have now become adults and this spurs us on.

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A further focus of our Department is special surgical procedures for the correction of damaged heart valves. For adults there is a large range of biological and mechanical aortic valve prostheses. In children these prostheses cannot always be implanted. Valve reconstruction is then a good alternative until the child reaches adulthood.

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In many cases we can perform heart operations by making a small incision in the patient’s side, below the right arm, which avoids opening of the rib cage. This enables our patients to grow up without a large scar on the chest which marks them out as heart patients, although the heart defect has long been corrected.

A repeat operation may be necessary for differing reasons. Many of these reoperations are expected, i.e. we know at the first operation that some of the patients will have to be operated on again. If a second operation is likely, special membranes are used during the first operation that reduce the development of scarring or protect particular implants. This makes the second operation easier and safer.