Children’s heart centre

Every year, approximately 280 children undergo surgery in our paediatric surgical unit, and around 160 children undergo some form of catheter-based intervention. Paediatric cardiac surgery is part of Region Skåne's work with national specialised medical care.

At the Children’s heart centre, children and adolescents are cared for during their heart surgery or heart examination. Here, children with advanced heart failure who need mechanical circulatory support, such as a ventricular assist device and/or a heart transplant, are treated. The centre also cares for children with other types of heart diseases, such as arrhythmias.

Within the Children’s heart centre, there are outpatient wards that cater to children and adolescents with heart defects or heart diseases who do not require inpatient care. We have close collaboration with specialist prenatal care and delivery services to ensure the best possible care for children with heart defects even before they are born.

The Children’s heart centre is part of the paediatric surgery and neonatal care department where we collectively care for children with heart defects, premature infants, children needing surgery, and children requiring intensive care.

Research

At the Children’s heart centre, we conduct extensive research in collaboration with local, national, and international partners.

We investigate, among other things, the causes of pulmonary hypertension. Using three-dimensional images of diseased pulmonary vessels, we examine the vessels using molecular methods to better understand the origin of high pressure in the pulmonary arteries. This lays the groundwork for new treatment methods. The images of diseased pulmonary vessels are created in collaboration with MAX IV Laboratory in Lund, Sweden.

We also develop new methods for early detection of complex heart defects and evaluate when and with which method we best address the defect. We work with engineers to predict the outcome of catheter-based treatments before they are performed. Through meticulous follow-ups, we examine how children and parents experience their quality of life before and after heart surgery.

We conduct a research project in collaboration with the Department of Computer Science at LTH, Faculty of Engineering at Lund University, aimed at developing autonomous robotic surgery in paediatric cardiac surgery. As part of the project, paediatric cardiac surgeries are recorded with the consent of the child and the child's parents. These recordings are then used to train neural networks to recognize anatomy and surgical instruments.