Traditionally, quality improvement for surgeons focuses on cases that did not go as planned. These cases are dissected at weekly morbidity and mortality meetings. A little more than a year ago, Norton Children’s Heart Institute, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine, completely revamped the classic morbidity and mortality process. We’re looking at trends, rather…
While endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) of aortic aneurysm has expanded over the last 20 years, there are still cases where this minimally invasive procedure has limitations. Using a new type of endograft called fenestrated endografts, surgeons at Norton Heart & Vascular Institute are repairing abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) that are close to the renal or…
Roddy D. McDowell, M.D., and Delwyn E. McOmber, M.D., are making their Pediatric HeartCare Partners practice a part of Norton Children’s Heart Institute, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine. In addition to adding two skilled pediatric cardiologists to the Norton Children’s heart team, Pediatric HeartCare Partners will add five Southern Indiana locations and three…
The patient A girl born at 26 weeks’ gestation due to premature labor and prolonged premature rupture of membranes. At birth she weighing 891 grams. The mother received appropriate dose of steroids prior to giving birth, and the baby was intubated shortly after birth) and given surfactant with a second dose given at 12 hours….
Norton Children’s Heart Institute, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine, has opened its Fontan Clinic to provide follow-up care to children and adults who have undergone the third of a three-surgery series to treat a congenital single ventricle anomaly. The clinic is a passion for Joshua Kurtz, M.D., a pediatric interventional cardiologist at Norton…
The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has approved hybrid ablation as a treatment for long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation (A-fib), the most severe form of the condition affecting about 45% of A-fib patients. Hybrid ablation treats A-fib in procedures that combine endocardial radiofrequency ablation with epicardial ablation. The ablations create lesions that interrupt the faulty electrical…
In babies with single-ventricle anomalies, triggering their oral feeding motor skills in the first hours or days of life before their first surgery may reduce dependence on feeding tubes and lead to better outcomes. “Preoperative oral feeding may be a modifiable risk factor that can decrease time of postoperative feeding tube dependence,” Joshua Kurtz, M.D.,…
Norton Heart & Vascular Institute is first in the area to adopt the Lux-DX insertable cardiac monitor technology, which reduces the patient’s need for in-person monitoring. Arrhythmia patients of the institute have begun receiving the Lux-Dx monitor, which allows for wireless transmission of clearer and more reliable signals to the Norton Heart & Vascular Institute…
A pioneering intervention to treat the typically fatal combination of fetal mitral dysplasia syndrome (which consists of critical aortic stenosis, severe mitral regurgitation and massively enlarged, dysfunctional left ventricle) is showing positive results at Norton Children’s Heart Institute, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine. For a boy born at 37 weeks weighing just more…
When parents take their babies home in between surgeries for a serious and complex heart condition, they also are leaving with a specially equipped iPad to send critical data through a connection to Norton Children’s Heart Institute, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine. The device tracks key metrics of the baby’s health and can…
A new clinical trial, known as CHAMPION-AF, is underway to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the next-generation WATCHMAN FLX left atrial appendage closure (LAAC) device compared with a new generation of blood thinners within a broad population of patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (A-fib). The WATCHMAN FLX device replaces long-term blood thinner use by closing the…
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) estimates that 19.3% of U.S. children ages 2 to 19 have obesity, including 6.1% with severe obesity, and another 16.1% are overweight. The current prevalence of high blood pressure (BP) in children is 11% and is expected to rise. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is the gold…