At the St. Louis Children’s and Washington University Heart Center, we offer the most advanced treatment for even the smallest hearts. We treat a wide range of children with heart failure, giving stressed families new hope.
Advanced Cardiac Support: Why Choose The Heart Center?
St. Louis Children’s Hospital is internationally recognized as a leader in providing advanced expertise and therapies for children and families facing the challenge of significant heart disease and heart failure. The St. Louis Children's and Washington University Heart Center multi-disciplinary team works together to ensure seamless, state-of-the-art care for children with heart disease.
- Treating complex heart failure: We are a national destination for treating children with complex and advanced heart disease. We provide a range of advanced support options tailored to the need of your child, from medications to mechanical assist devices to heart transplantation. Learn more about our heart center and ventricular assist device program.
- Being a leader in heart transplant: We are one of the largest pediatric heart transplant centers in the country, recently celebrating our 500th Heart Transplant. Our surgical, cardiac support, and critical care teams work together to care for every aspect of your child’s health; from the smallest infants to young adults. Learn more about our heart transplant program. Meet our team.
- Having world-renowned doctors: Our doctors are internationally recognized for the depth of their expertise in treating advanced pediatric heart disease and failure. In partnership with Washington University in Saint Louis School of Medicine, our team offers evidence-based treatments including the most recent innovations in cardiac therapies available.
- Family centered care and support: We believe in letting children be children. Our integrative teams works in concert to optimize therapies and support with the goal of getting children and families back to normal. We believe in treating the whole child, with ancillary therapies to ensure optimal nutrition, strength, and mental health along with providing world-class cardiac care.
Advanced Cardiac Support Services We Offer
We can treat any child with heart failure, from the straightforward to the most complex. We lead the way in these areas:
Ventricular Assist Devices (VAD)
A VAD is a small mechanical pump that supports heart function and blood flow in children with weak or diseased hearts. A VAD pumps blood from the ventricles (lower heart chambers), usually the left ventricle, to the rest of the body. St. Louis Children's Hospital was one of the first centers in the nation to introduce a VAD program. We currently have some of the highest success rates in the nation for VAD placement, and we are able to send even very young children home safely with a VAD. Learn more about how we use ventricular assist devices.
Heart transplantation
Our heart transplant program is one of the largest and most active pediatric heart transplant programs in the country. We have successfully transplanted hearts to children of all ages, including newborns. With heart transplant success rates well above national averages, we help more children with advanced heart failure live healthy, active lives. Read about the heart transplant program at St. Louis Children's Hospital.
