Nicklaus Children’s Hospital’s Heart Institute announced it has successfully performed Florida’s first partial heart transplant. An 11-year-old patient received an implanted “living valve” of a donor heart during a procedure the hospital said is “designed to prevent the need for future open-heart surgeries because the valve will grow with the child as they age.”
The surgery is presented as an alternative to the implantation of animal-derived and mechanical prosthetic valves that require eventual replacement as do not have the capability to grow as the patient matures. Prosthetic valves also deteriorate over time or require the daily use of blood thinners. Valve replacements require additional open-heart surgeries and are associated with a decreased survival rate after implantation, stated the hospital.
The procedure was led by David Kalfa, MD, chief of cardiovascular surgery, co-director of the Nicklaus Children’s Heart Institute and professor and researcher at the FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. “We are not just repairing a defect,” said Dr. Kalfa of the procedure. “We are restoring function in a way that allows the heart to grow naturally. Our goal is to move beyond temporary solutions like prosthetic materials and provide children with long-lasting, life-changing outcomes.”
Congenital heart defects affect nearly 1% of U.S. newborns, with half requiring an operation to fix or replace a valve.
