The Congenital Heart Valve Program at Boston Children’s specializes in the care and treatment of children who have heart valve disease. It is critical to repair or replace a diseased valve as soon as possible so a child can benefit from a normal circulation system and live a healthy life.
How we care for congenital heart valve disease
Our specialists have decades of experience treating patients with congenital heart valve disease — from the fetal stage and into young adulthood. We understand the many intricacies of valve disease, including its most complex presentations, and have the expertise and advanced medical technology to develop the most appropriate care plan for your child.
Our team believes it is best to treat a child’s valve disease as early as possible. Sometimes, though, a newborn has trouble feeding and gaining weight. We help them gain weight and grow so they can be ready for needed surgery. We’re dedicated to restoring and creating optimal conditions for proper blood flow for all patients.
Learn how 3D modeling has transformed the planning of heart surgery by showing details of a patient’s heart.
We treat these types of congenital heart valve disease:
Several congenital heart defects (CHDs) and other types of heart conditions are associated with congenital heart valve disease. Patients with other certain medical conditions also are predisposed to having heart valve disease. Those conditions are:
How we approach treatment for congenital heart valve disease
Our team carefully reviews two primary approaches before treating a child for congenital heart valve disease: valve repair and valve replacement. Our approach will depend on the child’s condition, the severity of the disease, their heart anatomy, and overall health.
Heart valve repair or reconstruction
Children benefit when their heart valves can be repaired, rather than replaced. We focus on developing solutions to repair heart valves so they can remain structurally intact and help make the other parts of the heart strong and healthy. Those solutions include new reconstruction techniques that can improve the function of diseased heart valves that were once considered beyond repair.
Heart valve replacement
Sometimes a valve cannot be repaired, and a replacement is the only option. We then strive to find the most appropriate replacement valve option: a mechanical or bioprosthetic (cow or pig) valve. Replacement valves can have drawbacks, though. Mechanical valves are durable but require a patient to take anticoagulation medication for the rest of their lives, while bioprosthetic valves may have a limited lifespan and require a patient to have more replacement procedures. Understanding those limitations, we are constantly trying new approaches to give children more time and better health with a replacement valve.
Overcoming tetralogy of Fallot
After surgery to repair tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary valve stenosis, James is all smiles. Read all about this “happy warrior.”
Fetal and infant cardiac intervention for aortic valve disease
Thanks to advancements in cardiac imaging, we can evaluate the characteristics of a fetus’ heart anatomy and potentially intervene before birth with specialized in utero treatment. Using two- and three-dimensional cardiac echocardiography, CT scans, and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), we work closely with the Fetal Cardiology Program at Boston Children’s Fetal Care and Surgery Center to detect and diagnose congenital heart valve disease and any CHD in the fetal stage.
3D modeling creates individualized treatment plans
Incorporating echocardiograms, MRIs, and other imagery, the engineers of the Cardiovascular 3D Modeling and Simulation Program create three-dimensional models of patients’ hearts. This 3D perspective gives us accurate dimensions and spatial relationships of a heart anatomy so that we can project how to repair or replace a valve and perform other surgical facets, such as a VSD repair, in the same operation.
In 2024, we were the first hospital in New England to perform a partial heart transplant — removing four-year-old Jack’s diseased aortic valve and, in its place, implanting a donor’s healthy aortic valve. Because it is human tissue, the donor valve should grow along with Jack.
