Interventional Cardiology
Interventional Cardiology
Interventional cardiology is an internationally recognized program that provides a full spectrum of diagnostic and interventional cardiac catheterization procedures. We offer state-of-the-art technology including two custom-built Hybrid Cardiac Catheterization Suites and a Hybrid Operating Suite equipped to provide for the interventional treatment of all patients (from a 700g premature infant to an 80-year-old adult) with congenital and acquired heart disease. This includes interventional transcatheter therapy of adults with congenital or structural heart disease.
Nationwide Children's Hospital is ranked by U.S. News & World Report for Cardiology and Heart Surgery.
About our Interventional Cardiology Program
We believe quality and safety are top priorities. Our program participates in national and international quality improvement efforts including:
- Congenital Cardiac Catheterization Outcomes Project (C3PO) Registry
- Improving Pediatric and Adult Congenital Treatment (IMPACT) working group of the Adult Congenital and Pediatric Cardiology (ACPC) Section Member
Interventional cardiology is truly the future of heart care for children and adults, allowing complex procedures to be successfully completed while leaving the patient with a band-aid, rather than a scar. At Nationwide Children's, the full range of interventional cardiology procedures is available:
- Balloon dilation of stenotic valves or narrowed vessels
- Catheterization
- Coil embolization of undesirable vessels and patent ductus
- Radiofrequency and Cryogenic catheter ablation of accessory conduction pathways
- Stenting of narrowed vessels
Meet Our Team
Dramatic improvements in interventional cardiac catheterization treatments and techniques allow specialists to care for more and more cardiac problems without surgery. Our cardiac interventionists are among the best in the world, pioneering treatments right here at Nationwide Children's. This innovative spirit has led to a collaborative interventional catheterization and cardiothoracic surgery program, causing the lines between transcatheter and surgical treatment strategies to blur. Thus, The Heart Center’s need for a therapeutic suite that is compatible with both interventional cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery.
Aimee K. Armstrong
Aimee Armstrong, MD, is the Director of Cardiac Catheterization & Interventional Therapies at Nationwide Children's Hospital. Her research interests include pediatric and fetal interventional cardiology, clinical trials in congenital interventional catheterization and innovations research for pediatric cardiac catheterization.
Benjamin A. Blais
Benjamin Blais, MD, is a pediatric interventional cardiologist for The Heart Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and an assistant professor of pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. His clinical interests include diagnosis and management of lymphatic disorders in congenital heart disease.
Arash Salavitabar
Arash Salavitabar, MD, is a pediatric interventional cardiologist for The Heart Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Services We Offer
We offer Interventional Cardiology expertise in:
- Staged hybrid therapy of patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome
- Expanding hybrid and intraoperative interventional procedures and new therapeutic strategies
- Transcatheter implantation of the pulmonary valve
- Closure of atrial and ventricular septal defects
- Closure of patent ductus arteriosus (including infants weighing less than 5kg)
- Treatment of patients with complex pulmonary artery obstructions
- Treatment of patients with coarctation of the aorta and complex arch obstructions
- Interventional catheterization procedures in very premature infants
Meet Zoey
Just two years old at the time, Zoey Jones was told she would need a heart and lung transplant for her failing organs, a complication due to the single ventricle heart defect she was born with. She was referred to Nationwide Children’s Hospital where they began to prepare for a transplant, when a second look in the catheterization laboratory (cath lab) led doctors to believe her heart and lungs were strong enough to avoid transplant altogether.
Nationwide Children's Stent Development Lays Groundwork for Melody Valve
The Heart Center had a key role in the FDA approval of the Medtronic Melody Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve and Ensemble Delivery System as well as with the development of both the stent and balloon-in-balloon products. This new treatment is the first in the United States offering minimally-invasive treatment options for congenital heart disease patients. This will help minimize and delay the need for multiple open heart surgeries over a patient's lifetime. Nationwide Children's was one of five initial clinical trial locations.