Paediatric and adult congenital cardiology unit

Presentation

The Unit, which deals with the diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart disease in neonatal, paediatric and adult patients, makes use of the most advanced echocardiographic, angiographic and advanced imaging (CT and MRI) diagnostic technology to define the anatomical and functional characteristics of congenital heart malformations.

This diagnostic evaluation is completed, in the most complex cases, by a three-dimensional reconstruction and printing of the malformation, so as to be able to simulate possible corrective interventions.
Endovascular treatment procedures using cardiac catheterisation are also performed at this facility for the non-surgical correction of congenital heart disease and cardiac arrhythmias.

State-of-the-art instruments are used that allow the non-surgical treatment of heart malformations from the neonatal age to the adult, also based on hybrid, cardiological, interventional and cardiac surgery techniques, thanks to the synergy with paediatric and adult cardiac surgeons.

Major milestones.

Each year, at this specialist facility, about 400 non-surgical interventional procedures are performed in patients from both Italy and numerous foreign countries.

The Unit also employs a multi-specialist team for the classification and management of at-risk pregnancies in women with congenital or acquired heart disease, or in pregnant women with a foetus suffering from a complex cardiac malformation.
Psychologists, gynaecologists, midwives, neonatologists, paediatric and adult cardiologists, paediatric cardiac surgeons and cardiac anaesthesiologists are involved in this process of classification and treatment, in order to quantify the risk of the pregnant woman and the unborn child and to better plan the delivery and management of the newborn.