Pediatric Heart Surgery

The Pediatric Heart Institute at Monroe Carell is recognized as one of the nation’s best by U.S. News & World Report. Our high-quality care and specialized disease management earned accreditation by the Children's Cardiomyopathy Foundation (CCF). The American Society of Extracorporeal Technology (AmSECT) has recognized Monroe Carell as a Perfusion Center of Excellence with the 2022 Pillar Award. We are one of only seven children's hospitals in the nation to earn this honor. Our program is also recognized as an Aetna Pediatric Heart Disease Center of Excellence.

We work as a team to ensure your child receives the most comprehensive heart care available. From general and fetal cardiologists to cardiac surgeons and critical care specialists, Monroe Carell is here to help your child in their health care journey. As part of a comprehensive academic medical center with one of the top heart programs in the world, we also provide seamless transition of care from childhood into adulthood.

Our cardiac surgeons perform more than 500 operations annually, making ours one of the ten busiest congenital heart surgery programs in the nation, according to STS.

Our PCICU staff are recognized experts in pediatric cardiac critical care. We are involved in many clinical research studies and have published original articles in scientific journals related to the care of critically ill children with heart disease. We actively participate and share experiences in multi-hospital groups, including the Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium (PC4) and the National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative (NPC-QIC).

The American Society of ExtraCorporeal Technology (AmSECT) has recognized Monroe Carell as a Perfusion Center of Excellence with the 2022 Pillar Award. We are one of only seven children's hospitals in the nation to be given this honor. This means the perfusionists who are part of your child's heart surgery team follow the highest standards of practice.

Monroe Carell is a part of Vanderbilt Health, one of the top heart transplant programs in the world. We provide patients with outstanding outcomes and access to innovative new research and treatments.

Our team includes pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists and cardiac certified registered nurse anesthetists with specialized training and experience in providing anesthetics during children's heart surgeries. We carefully select these experts to join us after they complete years of additional training. Our teams extend to nurses certified in cardiac care, ECMO specialists, support services, child life specialists and many others trained specifically in pediatric cardiac care.