The Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai is working with the Keck Medicine of USC heart surgery team to expand care for children and adults with congenital heart disease. (photo courtesy of Cedars-Sinai)

The Guerin Family Congenital Heart Program in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is expanding its surgical care for children and adult congenital heart disease patients by embarking on a new initiative that includes the Keck Medicine of USC heart surgery team.

“Our hope is for all children with congenital heart disease to live long and productive lives well into adulthood,” said Dr. Evan Zahn, director of the Guerin Family Congenital Heart Program. “Unlike traditional congenital heart programs that treat either children or adults, our program treats patients from prenatal diagnosis through childhood, and over the course of their entire adult lives.”

Cedars-Sinai’s congenital heart program has an extensive outpatient network, fetal diagnostic services, noninvasive imaging, advanced catheter interventions and clinical research programs. Its physicians have pioneered hybrid procedures that combine surgery and cardiac catheterization, reducing the need for open-heart procedures. The program combines pediatric care with expert maternal fetal medicine, and nation leading adult heart care and transplantation.

“We are delighted to work with the Smidt Heart Institute to create a new, world-class option for congenital heart patients and their families,” said Dr. Vaughn Starnes, founding executive director of the Keck Medicine of USC Cardiovascular Thoracic Institute and the H. Russell Smith Foundation Chair for Stem Cell and Cardiovascular Thoracic Research.

The congenital heart surgery team at Cedars-Sinai will be directed by Dr. Richard Kim, a cardiothoracic surgeon with Keck Medicine of USC.

“Our congenital heart surgeons have nationally recognized outcomes in complex heart operations and a wealth of experience in managing even the most difficult surgical cases,” Kim said. “We are thrilled to join with the experts at Cedars-Sinai to form a truly comprehensive pediatric and adult congenital program for the city of Los Angeles.”

The Cedars-Sinai heart transplant and structural heart programs are the largest in the U.S. Recently, U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals report ranked Cedars-Sinai third in the nation for cardiology and heart surgery. Additionally, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons awarded its top three-star designation to Cedars-Sinai in recognition of the outstanding quality of patient care and outcomes in isolated mitral valve replacement and repair in 2018-19. The mitral valve program is one of only a few in the U.S. routinely performing robotic mitral repair, with a near 100% success rate for degenerative mitral disease.

For information, visit cedars-sinai.org.