UT Health Austin and Dell Children's Medical Center physicians performed the world's seventh pediatric partial heart transplant.
The surgery was performed June 23 on an 11-month-old baby who was born with a congenital heart defect condition. The baby's valve between the lower left heart chamber and the main artery did not open fully, according to a July 10 system press release. The 11-hour surgery used valves from a donor heart as a complete transplant.
"Our team is excited about this procedure, it has the potential to change the paradigm of valve surgery in pediatric heart disease. This potentially life-saving surgery can make use of a donated heart that would otherwise not be transplantable," Carlos Mery, MD, surgical director of the Heart Transplant Program at Dell Children's, said in the release.
This was the baby's third open-heart surgery and he is showing improvement since the procedure, the release said.
Only three other institutions in the nation have performed this procedure.