Paediatric and adult congenital cardiac surgery unit

Presentation

Paediatric Cardiac Surgery at the Ospedale del Cuore in Massa has over 40 years’ experience in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of neonatal, paediatric and adult congenital heart disease, currently representing one of Italy’s pilot centres for the correction of complex heart defects.

The centre’s excellence programmes include anatomical correction of complex transpositions of the great vessels, univentricular palliation for hypoplastic left heart syndrome, surgical treatment of pulmonary atresias with IVD and MAPCA’s, and “3D-Model guided” surgery of neonatal, paediatric and adult congenital heart disease.

We have extensive experience in the treatment of congenital heart disease from newborn to adult congenital heart disease.

The average annual activity is about 250 interventions with an average overall mortality of 2%, comparable to international standards. The average level of complexity of the diseases treated is identifiable at grade 4 out of 5 in accordance with the STAT Mortality Category Score*. (*The Society of Thoracic Surgeons – European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (STAT) Congenital Heart Surgery Mortality Categories).

We are currently the only centre in Tuscany for the surgical treatment of congenital tracheal diseases, in collaboration with the Meyer Paediatric Hospital in Florence.

The Unit also has the only paediatric ECMO-Team programme in the Tuscany region aimed at the acute treatment of cardio-respiratory emergencies.

We provide neonatal cardiac surgery consultancy for all neonatal disease units in our Region, also carrying out urgent interventions at the Hospitals of Siena, Pisa and Florence.

For years, we have had an ongoing international humanitarian partnership with centres and hospitals in Albania, Romania, Kosovo, Croatia, Ukraine, Russia, Uzbekistan, through missions in the countries themselves or by providing care support for foreign patients, which is an additional asset of our service.