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Here at the Heart Unit at the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital, we work hard to offer the best treatments to children with cardiopathies.
The Heart Unit brings together two departments to provide care to patients with cardiac diseases: Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery (Cardiosurgery).
Our staff members diagnose and treat babies, children and young people with structural congenital heart defects, arrhythmias and conduction disorders and congenital or acquired cardiac pathologies from the fetal stage, all the way through childhood and adolescence.
We work hard to offer our patients the best treatment possible, with world-leading standards of excellence. We boast one of the lowest surgical mortality rates in Europe, and a very low reintervention rate.
Accreditations
- CSUR-accredited Centre by the Spanish Ministry of Health in providing comprehensive neonatal and paediatric care in congenital cardiopathy cases.
- CSUR-accredited Centre in Pediatric Arrhythmology.
Why the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital?
The Heart Unit at the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital is one of the leading units in Europe, with the lowest surgical mortality rates and a very low reintervention rate.
Our experience and efficacy
The Heart Area is one of the areas with the lowest surgical mortality rates in Europe, as well as a very low re-operation rate.
- We treat more than 8,000 children with heart disorders every year (i.e. an average of 32 patients per day).
- The Heart Unit of SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital is one of the units with the lowest surgical mortality in Europe and a low incidence of repeat interventions. Every year, we successfully perform 250 surgical interventions. The survival rate for our cardiac surgery patients is 98.8%.
- We have the best experts in fetal and neonatal surgery. The heart, arteries and blood vessels of newborns are extremely fragile. Our surgical experts have successfully operated on the smallest cardiopathy patient in the world, a baby girl weighing 1300 grams.
We aim for both early diagnosis and early treatment of cardiopathies, with as little hospital admission possible, so that the child can resume their normal life as soon as they can.
Our personalised, patient-centred multidisciplinary care
Heart defects are diagnosed and treated early with minimal hospitalisation so that the child's life can go back to normal as soon as possible.
- Our multidisciplinary team includes cardiologists, cardiovascular surgeons, anesthesiologists, pediatric and neonatal intensive care specialists, perfusionists, nurses, psychologists, physiotherapists and nutritionists.
- Our surgeons use the most appropriate technique for each case, always making sure it is the least invasive to ensure a better postoperative recovery.
- We work hard to provide the best hospital stay when a congenital heart disease requires surgery. Following their operation, our inpatients spend 7-8 days recovering, half the time of other Spanish pediatric hospitals.
Currently, our results are better than the European average (Registry of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery) and stand shoulder to shoulder with other global reference centres such as the Boston Children’s Hospital.
Recognition of our excellence
Currently, our outcomes are better than the European average (European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery Registry) and equivalent to leading centres worldwide such as Boston Children's Hospital. The survival rate for our cardiac surgery patients is 98.8%.
We are a national reference centre (CSUR), recognised by the Spanish Ministry of Health, in Pediatric Arrhythmology and Electrophysiology, Infant Cardiac Surgery and treatment of congenital heart disease in children and neonates.
Our results
Visits by children with heart disorders
Surgeries per year
Survival rate after surgery
Less than 1% of our patients require reoperation due to complications in the immediate post-op period.
Specialisms and services
Related Units
We are the reference hospital for the treatment of paediatric arrhythmias and familiar cardiopathies in Spain.
Treatments we offer
Cardiovascular surgery team
'We treat more than 8,000 children every year with heart problems. We are proud of having the highest survival rate in Europe’
Cardiology team
Anesthesiology
Nursing
- Isaac Moll Adrián
- Silvia Torner Sola
- M. Teresa Equirol López
- Laura Obón Jiménez
- Cristina Rey Gómez
- Laia Combalia Colomer
- Ariadna Sánchez Herranz
Clinical Perfusion
- Rosa Aguilar Villalba
- Sonia Acero Amaya
- Esther Vallmajó Roura
Research
The Heart Unit has its own research group, called the Enfermedades Cardiovasculares en el Desarrollo [Childhood cardiovascular diseases]. It grew in the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital Cardiology Department, and currently covers three main lines of research.
- The first line of research is led by Dr Georgia Sarquella and focuses its work on arrhythmias and sudden death.
- The second, led by Dr Sánchez de Toledo and Dr Camprubí, looks into the impact of congenital cardiopathies on babies’ development, in particular, their neurodevelopment.
- The third line focuses on studying cardiological repercussions of systemic disease disorders, such as sepsis and viral infection, among others.
Education
The SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital is a university hospital affiliated with the University of Barcelona. We share our knowledge and train professionals so that they can go onto specialise in Pediatric Anesthesiology.
Master’s in Pediatric Cardiology
The aim of the Master’s in Pediatric Cardiology is to ensure comprehensive training within the subspecialism of Pediatric Cardiology. It is aimed at graduates of Medicine and Surgery who specialise in Pediatrics and adult cardiology.
Patients' stories
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