Cardiac Cath Suites

Cardiac Cath Suite

First Generation Hybrid Cardiac Catheterization Lab Suites: First of Their Kind in the World

At The Heart Center, we're constantly searching for new, better ways to deliver the finest care. This innovative spirit has led to a collaborative interventional catheterization and cardiothoracic surgery program, and the lines between transcatheter and surgical treatment strategies are disappearing. Thus, the need for a therapeutic suite that is compatible with both the interventional cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery disciplines ("hybrid").

The Heart Center has taken a cutting-edge leap with the opening of two hybrid cardiac suites. These suites, which combine innovations in catheterization, diagnostic and telecommunication technologies are the only ones of this kind in the world. Heart centers from around the country will travel to Nationwide Children's to learn from this new technology.

Features/Benefits of the Hybrid Cath Suites

  • Improvement in patient care - a multidisciplinary team working on the same patient in the same room, simultaneously or in tandem

  • Information available simultaneously to staff during procedures via state-of-the-art equipment (angiograms, echocardiograms, physiology monitoring, CT scans, MRI, etc.) capability for future cardiac TeleMedicine Center to transfer information to any number of possible locations, including a remote referring physician in another county or a consulting physician in another part of the Heart Center or on the other side of the world

  • Video display via multiple flat panel monitors: at least two monitors are in view to staff members at all times, regardless of staff location within the suites

  • Professional growth/education and recruitment of the brightest and the best

Sample Hybrid Procedures

  • Stage I procedure in the treatment of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome which includes surgical banding of the right and left pulmonary arteries, stent implantation of the Patent Ductus Arteriosus, and stent implantation for stabilization of the Atrial Septal Defect

  • Stent implantation of pulmonary arteries and veins under direct visualization

  • Perventricular closure of Ventricular Septal Defects using Occlusion Devices (some of these procedures previously performed in the O.R.)

During multi-year planning discussions, Nationwide Children's lead the design process, bringing together leaders such as Toshiba and Stryker Communications.