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 Arkansas Children's Heart Institute

Pediatric Cardiology Care

Arkansas Children's provides right-sized care for your child. U.S. News & World Report has ranked Arkansas Children's in seven specialties, including Cardiology.

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As the only program in Arkansas dedicated to pediatric cardiology, specialists at Arkansas Children’s Heart Institute diagnose and treat a comprehensive list of both acquired and congenital heart diseases and conditions.

Possible Conditions

Other Conditions Treated by the Heart Institute 

  • Anomalous Coronary Artery (ACA)
  • Aortic Stenosis
  • Atrial Septal Defect (ASD)
  • Atrioventricular Canal (AV Canal or AVC)
  • Coarctation of the Aorta
  • Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome
  • Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA)
  • Pulmonary Artery Stenosis
  • Pulmonary Atresia (PA)
  • Pulmonary Stenosis
  • Tricuspid Atresia (TA)
  • Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return
  • Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA)
  • Tetralogy of Fallot
  • Truncus Arteriosus
  • Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD)
  • Arrhythmias in Children
  • Bacterial Endocarditis
  • Cardiomyopathy
  • Eisenmenger’s Syndrome
  • Heart Murmurs 
  • Heart Rhythm Issues in Children
  • High Blood Pressure or Hypertension in Infants
  • Kawasaki Disease
  • Marfan syndrome
  • Syncope

Meet the Team

With a multidisciplinary team approach to care, our specialists work together across all pediatric disciplines for the best care plan for your child. Care is coordinated through diagnosis, imaging, treatment, aftercare and follow-up monitoring. Critically important for children with congenital heart disease, we help transition patients to our Adult Congenital Heart Disease Clinic for long-term success.

The Heart Institute at Arkansas Children's takes a comprehensive, team approach customized to treating your child's heart care. A large team of some of the best pediatric cardiologists and intensivists provides excellent diagnostic, interventional treatment and post-operative care to complete the world-class spectrum of support provided in the Heart Institute. With tight collaboration between surgeons and cardiologists, the Heart Institute at Arkansas Children's is able to provide patients and families a seamless continuum of care. The Heart Institute at our hospital functions as a cohesive team to provide cardiac surgical patients with unparalleled care. You'll find its pediatric Heart Institute is state-of-the-art, staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week with in-house cardiac-level intensivists. Our center is backed by a team that is totally committed to cardiac care-and our outcomes prove it.

The pediatric cardiovascular surgical program features state-of-the-art surgical care for children and adults with congenital heart disease, balanced with utmost compassion and hope. Although our focus is on patients from the south-central United States, our pediatric cardiovascular services reach beyond those boundaries to a nationwide and even international level. From the tiniest of neonates with the most complex cardiac malformations to continuing-care adults with conditions present since birth, our outcomes and results are unexcelled anywhere. 

Expert Heart Care in Arkansas for Every Child at Every Age

Caring for patients with congenital heart defects means caring for people of all ages. In fact, our successes mean there are many more adults living with congenital heart disease. This has led us to develop a new field of practice focusing on those adult survivors. Our practice includes:

  • Cardiac Care for the Unborn Child - It is not uncommon to find cardiac defects before a baby is born. A detailed ultrasound of an unborn baby may reveal a heart problem. The only specially trained fetal echocardiographers in Arkansas are at Arkansas Children's. A variety of defects and rhythm problems can be identified ahead of time so that high-risk deliveries may be anticipated. 

  • Arkansas Cardiology Care for Newborn Infants - Some newborns have defects in heart valves, holes in the walls of the heart (septal defects) or abnormal connection of large blood vessels from the heart (patent ductus arteriosus). Others have weaknesses in heart muscle, coronary arteries, and heart chambers. Still, others have lung artery abnormalities and heart murmurs. Sometimes these problems only require medication for treatment. In more severe cases, surgical intervention is necessary. 

  • Cardiac Care for Infants and Children - Older children can have many of the same problems as infants. Some need a follow-up visit with a cardiologist after having a heart operation or to correct a cardiac defect. Rarer afflictions include rheumatic fever, Kawasaki's Disease, Down's Syndrome, Marfan Syndrome or DiGeorge Syndrome. Rhythm problems, dizziness or syncope (fainting or losing consciousness) are common within this age group. 

  • Arkansas Cardiology Care for Adolescents and Adults - Heart defect cases originating in childhood are followed and cared for by pediatric cardiology doctors. This unique group of patients requires specialized knowledge of childhood heart disease as it affects them with age. This is particularly important if surgery may be needed or rhythm problems develop.

The Arkansas Children's Hospital's Cardiovascular Anesthesia team has the training and experience to focus on the specific needs of patients and manage a range of complex cardiac issues. For patients with heart disease, the pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist has a central role in coordinating team-based surgical care.

The cardiac anesthesiologist:

  • monitors physiologic parameters;
  • protects vital organ function;
  • controls blood coagulation;
  • and reduces the inflammatory response to cardiopulmonary bypass.

Each part of the surgical procedure requires specific attention, including poor heart function before transplantation, the monitoring during cardiopulmonary bypass, or assisting the patient's heart in separating from cardiopulmonary bypass. The cardiac anesthesiologist has the ability to monitor the patient's overall well-being, thereby helping to create the optimal environment for a successful cardiac repair procedure, or any other type of procedure on a cardiac patient.

Locations

Traveling to Arkansas Children's?

The Regional Care Center helps families traveling from another state or country receive world-class pediatric care before, during and after your stay.

Learn more about the Regional Care Center

Our pediatric heart specialists perform various diagnostic and interventional procedures in newly opened cardiac catheterization laboratories and hybrid operating rooms.

Possible Tests and Treatments

  • Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICDs)
  • Cardiac Catheterization in Children
  • Chest X-Ray 
  • CT (Computed Tomography) Scan
  • Echocardiography
  • EKG / ECG
  • Heart Transplantation
  • Holter Monitoring
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Children
  • Transesophageal Echocardiography
  • Ultrafast / Electron Beam CT Scan

3D Heart Model Printing Center

Our 3D Heart Model Printing Center has fundamentally changed the way we work. It houses several 3D printers and design tools that generate colorful and tangible replicas of our patients’ hearts that surgeons can hold in their hands. By visualizing the heart defect before surgery begins, patients often spend less time in the OR and less time recovering from major heart surgery.

Resources for your Visit

All the support you need in one place

Congenital heart disease is often a bigger challenge than just the heart itself. That’s why our approach to cardiac care includes everything from social workers to nutritionists to neurologists. These additional resources are often critical to supporting the patient in every aspect of their lives—and we offer them all under one roof at the Arkansas Children’s Heart Institute.

Discover cardiology programs that empower parents and families at home.

Watch Everest's Story

Everest is sure to live up to her name - she's had some mountains to climb and is an overcomer! At just 4 months old, she needed heart surgery and her parents trusted our nationally ranked cardiology team. Down Syndrome and an Atrial Septal Defect (a hole in the heart) is not stopping her from living her best life.

How 3D Printed Hearts and Virtual Reality Help Plan Pediatric Cardiology Surgeries

Medical technology is advancing rapidly, giving cardiologists innovative ways to plan for surgeries. Pediatric Cardiologists at Arkansas Children's Hospital use 3D heart printers and virtual reality systems (EchoPixel) to help prepare for complex surgical cases involving newborn babies and older patients. This technology allows surgeons to see and hold a patient's heart before the procedure, as well as understand the arteries and heart chamber relationships.

Dr. Markus Renno explains, "The goal of an operation is to know exactly what you're going to do and finish it quickly and effectively." These medical advancements are creating positive heart surgery outcomes for patients and physicians.

Watch this video to see precisely how a 3D heart is printed from scan to 3d model and how virtual reality gives doctors a view of patients' hearts before they are in the operating room.

  • Project ADAM

    Project ADAM (Automated Defibrillators in Adam's Memory) is a national, non-profit organization committed to saving lives through advocacy, education, preparedness and collaboration to prevent sudden cardiac death.

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Beads of Courage®

Beads of Courage is a 501(c) 3 tax-exempt organization dedicated to helping children with serious illnesses record, tell, and own their stories of survival. When children undergo treatment for serious illnesses, needle sticks, x-rays and hospital stays are all painful episodes to be endured. Beads of Courage is a program that awards these brave patients with beads to represent each milestone. Through this program, children can tell their stories using colorful beads as meaningful symbols of courage that commemorate milestones they have achieved.

Initially created to help children endure cancer treatment, the program has since been modified to also reach patients with cardiac conditions. Patients receive a necklace with their name and a bead symbolizing the cardiac program. With every milestone in a patient's treatment, beads are added to help tell a story of understanding, acceptance, and survival unique to each child's journey. These colorful beads are worn proudly by patients or their families to symbolize courage. They are a constant reminder to take each procedure one day at a time. These beads bring energy and excitement to patients and families.

Major Benefits

The ongoing evaluation of the Beads of Courage program indicates that the program helps decrease illness-related distress, increases the use of positive coping strategies, helps children find meaning in illness, and restores a sense of children coping with serious illness. The program also provides something tangible the child can use to describe their experience during and after treatment.

For more information or to make a donation, email us: CVICUbeadsofcourage@archildrens.org.

Patient Stories

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