Catheterization Catheterization Techniques Assume Role as Alternative to Open Surgery STORY HIGHLIGHTS Recent advances in cardiac catheterization have transformed the treatment of infants, children and adults with congenital heart disease. UCLA’s congenital cardiac catheterization lab is applying these advances to smaller patients and larger structural defects. Recent advances in cardiac catheterization have transformed the treatment of infants, children and adults with congenital heart disease (CHD). At UCLA, physicians in the Congenital Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory have pioneered efforts to enable heart valves to be replaced without surgery, as well as through minimally invasive procedures developed and performed in collaboration with cardiac surgeons. “Many doctors are surprised to learn how much we can now achieve with valves, stents and closure devices,” says Daniel Levi, MD, director of the UCLA Pediatric Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory. In the field of transcatheter valve replacement, the UCLA Congenital Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory has taken technology designed UCLAHEALTH.ORG 1-844-4UCLADR (1-844-482-5237) specifically for aortic-valve replacement and applied it to the replacement of dysfunctional mitral, tricuspid and pulmonary valves without open surgery — enabling patients to leave the hospital the next day. The laboratory also is a leading center for more common procedures used to treat congenital heart disease, including the use of stenting to open blockages, balloons to open valves and devices to close holes in the heart. For example, Dr. Levi notes, most atrial septal defects are now treated using transcatheter devices. UCLA’s congenital cardiac catheterization lab is applying these advances to smaller patients and larger structural defects — in some cases taking premature infants and other newborns straight from the delivery room to the catheterization lab