Conditions and Treatments

The congenital heart center’s pediatric cardiology team provides comprehensive evaluation and coordinated care for unborn babies, infants, children and teenagers with various heart defects, diseases and conditions, as well as arrhythmias. We provide state-of-the-art inpatient and outpatient heart care. Our clinic is staffed by a team of highly-trained cardiologists, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, cardiac sonographers, and other support personnel.

Our cardiologists work closely with the interventional cardiologists, electrophysiologists and congenital heart surgeons so your child receives the best care.

The congenital heart center’s non-invasive cardiac imaging team uses advanced imaging techniques such as 3D echocardiography, computed tomography (CT) scans and magnetic resonance (MR) scans for diagnosis and planning of interventional and surgical procedures in children and adults with congenital heart disease.

Our cardiology team uses heart catheterization for both diagnosis and treatment. We offer a full range of catheter-based technologies to enable the least invasive, most effective diagnostic and treatment approaches for a variety of conditions. Child life specialists help your child cope before, during and after procedures.

Our interventional cardiologists are experts in working with congenital heart disease patients of all ages, from newborn babies to adults.

Our comprehensive cardiology services include:

• Diagnostic echocardiography
• Fetal echocardiography
• Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE)
• Electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) monitoring
• Holter monitoring
• Treadmill exercise studies
• Cardiac intensive care management
• Cardiac catheterization
• Diagnostic evaluation
• Interventional procedures
• Pulmonary hypertension evaluation and drug therapy
• Heart failure management
• Preventive cardiology/lipid management
• Adult congenital heart management and treatment
• Treatment of pre- and post-operative pediatric cardiac surgery patients

The congenital heart center is committed to providing the highest standard of care to help individuals live longer, healthier lives.

We offer a full range of catheter-based technologies to enable the least invasive, most effective diagnostic and treatment approaches for a variety of conditions. Our interventional cardiologists are experts in working with congenital heart disease patients of all ages, from newborn babies to adults.

Our congenital cardiology team uses heart catheterization for both diagnosis and treatment. It can help provide diagnostic information in various parts of the heart or obtain cardiac tissue samples for biopsy. As a treatment, catheterization procedures are more comfortable and have shorter recovery times than surgery. It also means a shorter hospital stay: often your child can go home the same day or the next morning.

Some heart catheterization procedures offer a treatment that works for a period of time until necessary heart surgery can be performed more safely. Some procedures allow your child to avoid surgery altogether. Conditions that may be treatable through heart catheterization include:

• Atrial septal defect
• Ventricular septal defect
• Patent ductus arteriosus
• Aortic stenosis
• Pulmonary stenosis
• Coarctation of the aorta

Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital has a state-of-the-art heart catheterization lab designed just for kids:

• Special temperature controls for babies and infants
• Catheterization procedures with the lowest X-ray dose possible
• A pediatric anesthesiologist participating in every procedure
• Technology that consolidates the typical six monitors into one, improving visualization of the defects
• Use of two cameras (also called “bi-plane”) to reduce the amount of contrast dye used during the procedure

Child life specialists help your child cope before, during and after procedures.

The congenital heart center is committed to providing the highest standard of care to help individuals live longer, healthier lives.

From newborns to adults, the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital congenital heart center brings world-class surgical options to West Michigan. Our congenital cardiothoracic surgeons have decades of combined experience in treating the most complex heart problems in children and adults.

Our surgeons work closely with the expert pediatric and adult cardiologists to plan and perform high-quality surgery in children and adults with congenital heart disease. They are also supported by a full team of dedicated specialists, including anesthesia, neonatology, intensive care, nursing, technicians, and child life staff.

We are one of the world’s leading centers in 3D echocardiography. Our cardiologists and surgeons utilize 3D-printing to assist and plan for complex congenital heart surgery.

More than half of children born with congenital heart defects require surgery at some point. If your child requires heart surgery, the congenital heart center will schedule a pre-surgery consultation to discuss your child’s diagnosis and treatment needs.

Our heart surgeons treat all conditions, including:

• Complex congenital heart defects
• Acquired heart defects
• Holes between chambers of the heart
• Abnormal heart valves
• Abnormalities of the major blood vessels
• Chest trauma

The Gerber Foundation Neonatal Center, the only Level-IV neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in West Michigan, offers the highest degree of quality care for at-risk newborns. We also have dedicated 12 beds in our pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) to the care of infants and children with congenital heart disease or acquired heart disease.

Individuals with congenital heart disease can also need surgery later in life. The congenital heart center will schedule a pre-surgery consultation to discuss your diagnosis and treatment needs. After surgery, inpatient care is provided in the Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center.

The congenital heart center is committed to providing the highest standard of care to help individuals live longer, healthier lives.

Arrhythmia is an abnormal rhythm of the heart, either too rapid (tachycardia) or slow (bradycardia). Problems with heart rhythm can also cause the heart to pump less effectively. Certain arrhythmias can increase the risk of other medical problems like stroke or blood clots. Arrhythmias can be an important problem in children and adults with congenital heart disease. Signs of arrhythmia include rapid heartbeat, dizziness and fainting.

There are different types of arrhythmia, including:

• Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome
• Tachycardia
• Supraventricular tachychardia
• Ventricular tachychardia
• Premature contractions
• Premature ventricular contractions (PVC)
• Premature atrial contractions (PAC)
• Atrial flutter
• Atrial fibrillation

The congenital heart center’s fellowship-trained pediatric electrophysiologist helps manage arrhythmias in children, young adults, as well as adults with congenital heart disease. When a child has a complex arrhythmia in association with a congenital heart defect, our electrophysiologist works together with pediatric interventional cardiology to provide the most appropriate and advanced treatment.

We use state-of-the-art technology that is specially geared toward children, including catheter ablations using 3D mapping with minimal fluoroscopy, to decrease a child's exposure to radiation.

Our expert electrophysiology services include:

• Workup for arrhythmia symptoms including palpitations and syncope
• Screening for prevention of sudden cardiac arrest in high-risk patients
• Management of children and adults with congenital heart disease with arrhythmias
• Evaluation and follow-up of patients with genetic arrhythmia syndromes, as well as those with pacemakers or defibrillators, including remote transmissions

Testing and procedures we offer:

• Holter monitor
• Event monitor
• Tilt table test
• Implantable loop monitor placement
• Electrophysiology studies
• Catheter ablations using 3D mapping with minimal fluoroscopy
• Pacemaker and defibrillator implantation
• Testing for genetic arrhythmia syndromes

Thanks to advances in medical, surgical and transcatheter interventions, the number of adults living with congenital heart disease in the United States (more than 1 million) is far greater than the number of children affected and is expected to continue to grow each year.

While the medical care and treatment for a congenital heart defect you received as an infant or child helped make things better, few defects are “cured.” As an adolescent or adult with congenital heart disease, you need specialized, lifelong follow-up care provided by a regional adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) center of excellence.

An ACHD center constitutes the medical “home” required to identify and/or address not only the impact of a congenital heart defect, but also late onset complications commonly encountered. As a result, this type of specialized ACHD care has been demonstrated to improve quality of life and outcomes for adult congenital heart patients.