We’re focused on finding new approaches and new technologies that will improve the diagnosis and treatment of arrhythmias in children with congenital heart disease (CHD). While there have been many great advances in the field, we are committed to creating more ways to be precise and less invasive in detecting irregular heartbeats, restoring the natural heart rhythm, and preventing arrhythmias from even happening.
Applying alternative pacemaker strategies for kids with heart block
We are exploring innovative ways to improve how we can pace the heart of children who require a pacemaker to overcome heart block. This includes techniques such as His bundle pacing, which aims to use the heart’s native conduction system even in the face of heart block. Additionally, new pacemaker technologies are emerging, including wireless pacemakers, that may have important applications in children.
Developing novel or new conduction mapping devices for pediatric cardiac surgery
While tremendous advances have been made with current conduction mapping tools, they have been adapted from an electrophysiology lab for use in an operating room. To improve the precision of conduction mapping during surgery, we’re developing tools and technology specifically tailored for surgical use.
'Seeing' the unseen: A way to pinpoint elusive cardiac conduction tissue
How conduction tissue mapping is reducing heart block
Using other innovative methods to locate conduction tissue
Another Benderson Family Heart Center initiative is aiming to prevent surgery-induced arrhythmia. Cardiac surgeon Aditya (AK) Kaza is leading research to see if a type of microscopy typically used to detect cancer and other diseases can be adapted to reveal the location of conduction tissue. The initiative’s research team recently finished an extensive clinical trial of patients with CHD to prove the safety and effectiveness of fiber-optic confocal microscopy in heart surgery.
A new lens on cardiac surgery could help prevent arrhythmia
A confocal microscope has been adapted to reveal the location of unseen conduction tissue around the heart.